Scientific research that involves international collaboration has produced papers of greater influence, as measured by the number of times a paper is cited in subsequent papers, than has research without any collaboration. ██████ ████ ██████ ████ █████████████ █████████████ ███ █████ ██ ███████ ██ █████ ██████ ███████ ██████ ████ ██████ ███████ ███ █████ ████ █████ █████ ██ ████████ ████ ██████████ █████ ████ ████████ ████████ █████████ ██ █████████████ ████████ █████ ███ ██ ███████ ██████████ ████ █████ █████████ ██ ██████ ████████████
The argument concludes that research conducted by international teams is more important than research conducted by individual researchers. This is based on the number of citations, or "influence" of papers produced in each type of research. International-team research is cited more often on average.
But what do citation numbers have to do with the importance of research? This is the argument's core assumption—that the frequency with which a paper is cited somehow indicates the importance of the research.
Which one of the following ██ ██ ██████████ ██ █████ ███ ████████ ████████
Prolific writers can ███████ ███ ██████ ██ █████████ ████ ███████ ██ ██████ ██████████ ██ ██████████ ███████
What do self-citing authors have to do with the importance of international versus solo research? As far as we know, nothing—(A) isn't relevant to the argument, so isn't necessary to assume.
It is possible ██ █████████ ███████ ██ ███ █ █████ ██ ███ ███████ ██ █████████████ █████████████ ██ ███████████ ███ ██████ ██ █████████ ██ ███ █████████
There could be outlier solo papers that have way more citations than most international research, and the argument would be just fine—that's the benefit of discussing averages. Besides, (B) doesn't address the essential element of "importance."
The number of █████████ █ █████ ████████ ██ █ ███████ ██ ███ ██████████ ██ ███ ████████ ██ ████████
How are citation numbers relevant to how important a research project is? Without (C), they're not relevant at all, meaning the argument falls apart. (C) is necessary to assume for the argument's premise to have any link to its conclusion.
The collaborative efforts ██ ██████████ ███ ███ ████████ ██ ███ ████ ███████ ██ ███ ███████ ██████ ████ ███ ██ █████████ ██ ██████ ████ ███ ████████ ██ █████████████ ██████████████
The argument only compares international collaborative projects with solo projects, so (D) falls beyond its scope. We don't have to make any assumptions about non-international science teams.
International research teams ████ ██ ██ ████ ██████████ ██████ ████ ███ ██████ ████████████
This might explain why international research gets more citations or is more important, but it's not necessary for that to be the case. Even if (E) were false, the argument wouldn't be damaged.
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