PrepTest 151, Section 2, Question 13
When scientific journals began to offer full online(59 more words not shown)
Which one of the following,(11 more words not shown)
- AA few of(17 more words not shown)
- BScientists who wrote(13 more words not shown)
- CScientists are more(28 more words not shown)
- DSeveral new scientific(16 more words not shown)
- EOnline searching made(23 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
More articles are available, but researchers increasingly cite the same ones. Why?
The new access seems as though it should broaden the possibilities. Imagine researching caterpillar disease: instead of relying on the journals nearby or asking a librarian to find a back issue, you can search much more widely. Yet the citations become more concentrated.
Maybe the search process keeps directing people to the same prominent articles. Or perhaps wider access helps people recognize work they previously wouldn't have found. Imagine one researcher formerly relying on a local caterpillar specialist, while another relies on a different local specialist. If both can now find a widely respected expert elsewhere, they might converge on that expert's work rather than keep citing different local sources.
What we’re looking for
Those are possible explanations, not facts about the scientists. For this question, we need something that connects the increase in access with the greater concentration of citations. The fact that there are more options doesn't ensure people will choose more different ones.
Working the answers
- A
Early online availability of authoritative journals might help those journals get attention. But we need to explain why easier access to a broader range of articles produces more overlap in citations. A doesn't say researchers keep favoring those early journals, or that they choose the same articles within them. The timing alone doesn't establish the relevant change in selection.
- B
Enthusiasm among prolific writers doesn't tell us which articles they will cite. They could use online access to select many different sources or repeatedly select the same sources. B identifies who likes the new access without explaining the concentration in the articles cited.
- C
A preference for people scientists already know doesn't, by itself, explain why going online would make their citations more alike. Different researchers could know different people and continue citing different articles. We aren't told that online access changed those personal connections in a way that would produce the observed convergence.
- D
More journals add more potential choices. Their appearance doesn't explain why scientists increasingly choose the same articles. D expands the range of available material without giving the missing reason for concentrating on a smaller shared selection.
- ECorrect
Searching now makes it easier to identify the highly regarded views, and scientists prefer to cite those views. So a broader search can draw researchers toward the same favored articles instead of scattering them across everything available.
Highly regarded doesn't mean the same thing as frequently cited, and it doesn't guarantee a view is objectively correct. The answer supplies a reason for the citation pattern: researchers can find the respected work more easily, and their preference leads them to cite it. That connects wider access with more concentrated choices.
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