#3 - Scientific research that involves international

[Administrator]

Complete Question Explanation

Assumption. The correct answer choice is (C)

The author begins this stimulus with some rather vague information: in total, international papers have had greater influence. Then, based on the premise that papers written with international collaboration have more citations, the author asserts that this proves international research projects are more important. The assumption here appears to be this: the more citations, the more important a paper is.

Only correct answer choice (C) reflects the prephrase above: the author asserts that international papers are more important, based on the greater average number of citations. This argument presumes that the number of citations is an accurate gauge of importance.

[Kellyg]

I understand why C would be correct, however isn't D also possible? The author never clarifies that they are even comparing interrelation collaboration research with non-international they simply say "papers with single authors" and answer choice D points that out.

[James Finch]

Hi Kelly,

You're correct that the stimulus is purposefully written to avoid telling us how often the research of single-country research teams is cited, meaning we cannot measure the relative importance of their research in comparison to that of single authors or international teams. However, their importance is also irrelevant to the argument made in the stimulus, which is that research produced by international teams is more important than research done by single individuals; only the comparison of the relative importance of the two matters. The stimulus is not concerned at all about single-nation research teams, so how important their research may be is irrelevant to the argument being made, which in turn excludes any answer choice, such as (D), from being an assumption/missing premise on which the stimulus depends.

Hope this clears things up!