CAT 2021 Question Paper | VARC Slot 2

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Question 23 : The passage given below is followed by four alternate summaries. Choose the option that best captures the essence of the passage.
Biologists who publish their research directly to the Web have been labelled as "rogue", but physicists have been routinely publishing research digitally ("preprints"), prior to submitting in a peer-reviewed journal. Advocates of preprints argue that quick and open dissemination of research speeds up scientific progress and allows for wider access to knowledge. But some journals still don't accept research previously published as a preprint. Even if the idea of preprints is gaining ground, one of the biggest barriers for biologists is how they would be viewed by members of their conservative research community.

Explanatory Answer

The main idea of the given paragraph is that, while physicists routinely pre-publish research in order to speed up scientific progress and allow access to knowledge, the conservative research community of biologists is less accepting of the idea. Option B sums up the paragraph well.
Option A states the exact opposite of what the paragraph says about biologists. Option C is incorrect as it says 'almost all peer-reviewed journals' are reluctant to accept pre-prints. The paragraph does not say so. Like C, D over-generalizes, saying that preprints are not accepted by 'most' scientific communities.

The answer is 'Compared to biologists, physicists are less conservative in their acceptance of digital pre-publication of research papers, which allows for faster dissemination of knowledge.'

Choice B is the correct answer.