Is there any value in research papers about trading strategies?

This question is probably to those who work in prop trading, specifically to those who employ algos. I'm working on an equity stat arb strategy myself as part of my master thesis and I came across lot's of papers about various strategies that got me thinking do any of them matter at all? Just following common sense, if the strategy shows superior results there is no point in making it public, researcher should utilize it himself. If he makes it public, he gives out the edge which will quickly disappear. So my question is to those who work in the industry do you guys actually follow the academia? or your strategies are being developed in-house and are mostly different from what is publicly available in research papers?