Logical Reasoning

PT151 · S2 · Q13 When scientific journals began to offer

A free, expert breakdown of this official LSAT Logical Reasoning question.

Save & drill this skill — build targeted practice sets from questions like this one
Video walkthroughs — watch every question solved step by step
81 official LSATs — as questions, timed sections & full-length tests

When scientific journals began to offer full online access to their articles in addition to the traditional printed volumes, scientists gained access to more journals and easier access to back issues.

Given that ...

Once science journals started offering all their articles online (in addition to in print), scientists gained access to more journals and easier access to back issues.

Why is it that ...

This didn't lead to a broader variety of articles being cited; it led to a greater tendency among scientists to cite the same articles as each other?

Evaluate / Goal

We would think that if you have access to more journals and to back issues, you'd be exposed to a greater variety of articles and so there'd be a greater variety of citations.

We need an answer to explain why we're getting greater repetition of citations. It should be something attached to the new reality of being able to search online or something that changed contemporaneously (i.e. at the same time these journals started offering their stuff online, something else also changed that led to greater similarity of citations).

13.

Which one of the following, if true, most helps to explain the surprising outcome described above?

A few of the most
No Impact
This does nothing to help us explain why there became greater similarity in terms of which articles were being cited by scientists. Which journals were the first / second / third / etc. doesn't have any common sense connection to citing the same articles.
3% picked this
Scientists who wrote a lot
No Impact
This does nothing to help us explain why there became greater similarity in terms of which articles were being cited by scientists. If the scientists who were most enthusiastic about this new access were those that wrote a lot of articles themselves, does that explain why scientists are increasingly citing the same articles? No, if anything, it sounds like these frequently-published scientists would cite their own work more and more. This answer doesn't give us a mechanism that explains why lots of scientists are citing the same articles as each other.
0% picked this
Scientists are more likely to
No Distinction
This plays off a distinction between who they know vs. who they don't. Does the advent of online access to journals change anything in relation to that? It doesn't seem to. Whether you have online access to your buddies' articles or just print access, you're still mainly citing your buddies' articles. Nothing about the new online access changes this answer, so this answer can't explain the change that occurred when the new online access started. It doesn't give us a mental distinction between "how scientists would have chosen what to cite" before online access vs. how they choose after online access.
11% picked this
Several new scientific journals appeared
Unclear Impact
This gives us a contemporaneous change, so it does provide a distinction. BEFORE online access — these new scientific journals didn't exist AFTER online access — they did Does that distinction help explain the greater tendency for scientists to be citing the same articles as each other? Not really, unless we assumed that the scientific community was all reading these new journals and picking the same articles to cite. Ultimately, we might come down to (D) and (E) and have to ask ourselves, "Which has a stronger common sense connection to scientists increasingly citing the same articles: several new journals appeared, or, easier to access most highly regarded articles?"
1% picked this
Correct
Online searching made it easier
Why this is right
"Online searching made it easier" is the causal difference-maker language we're looking for, since we want to understand how the advent of online access changed anything about how scientists cite articles. Since online searching made it easier to find the most highly regarded articles, it made it easier to cite those articles. If we add in some common sense that scientists would want to cite the most highly regarded views on an issue, then this gives us a mechanism by which to explain how online access led to more frequent citations of the same articles.
Skill tested: Paradox · how this choice captures the argument's function is the move to repeat next time.
84% picked this

Continue the review in LSAT Lab

Save this question, watch the video walkthrough, and drill similar questions in your LSAT Lab account.

Save and practice this skill

LSAT Lab

Turn this review into a targeted study plan.

Save this question, drill more like it, watch the video walkthrough, and track your progress in your LSAT Lab account.

Start practicing free