A research project has a successful outcome if its research is

Question

A research project has a successful outcome if its research is reported in a blind peer-reviewed academic publication. Can interdisciplinary collaborations on research projects at least sometimes produce a successful outcome?

﻿﻿﻿﻿(1) Some interdisciplinary research groups experience conflict and rivalry.

﻿﻿﻿﻿(2) A peer-reviewed and well-regarded interdisciplinary review of published papers on urban greening trends found that there was little if any evidence that planting more trees in an urban area significantly improved air quality there.

ID: 700323

Source: Official Guide 2024-25 (Data Insight Review)

MartyMurray · Accepted Answer

Man ... GMAC has to improve quality control.

peer reviewed ≠ reported in a publication

ashutosh_73 · Answer

Hi @MartyMurray @Chetan2u

I am not sure how (B) should be the answer:

Argument says: if research is reported in a  blind  peer-reviewed academic publication ---> research project has a successful outcome

(B) says:   A peer-reviewed  and well-regarded interdisciplinary review of published papers on urban greening trends found PQRS

So research should be published in a BLIND peer reviewed publication to be considered sucessful, but (B) doesn't mention the word BLIND.

Am i right to be concerned or am i being pedantic?

stne · Answer

Interdisciplinary collaborations on research projects will produce succcessful outcome, if reported in a peer reviewed acedemic publication.

﻿﻿﻿﻿ (1) Some interdisciplinary research groups experience conflict and rivalry.

Nothing being said about the research being reported in a peer reviewed academic publication.

INSUFF.

﻿﻿﻿﻿(2) A peer-reviewed and well-regarded interdisciplinary review of published papers on urban greening trends found that there was little if any evidence that planting more trees in an urban area significantly improved air quality there.

This tells us that the research was indeed reported ( published ) in a peer reviewed publication. Hence we can say a definite " YES " to the question. ( The rest of statement (2) which talks about the findings of the report is just to confuse us )

SUFF.

Ans B

Hope it helped.

GMATinsight · Answer

OFFICIAL EXPLANATION   
 Inference

(1)  The information regarding the sometimes dysfunctional social dynamics of research groups is not sufficient to show that research groups with such experiences always fail to produce successful research outcomes. So the information given here is not sufficient alone to indicate a yes or a no answer to the question posed; NOT sufficient.

(2)  The information gives us an example of one interdisciplinary collaboration on research that reported in a blind peer-reviewed publication its review of research studies on urban greening. The review found that there was insufficient evidence to show that planting trees in urban areas had a significant impact on air quality in such areas. Even though the result of its review was negative, its review of scientific publications on the issue was approved in a blind peer review and published. Therefore (2), in combination with the stimulus information, is sufficient to provide at least one example of a successful outcome of an interdisciplinary research project. This, in turn, is sufficient to show that interdisciplinary research groups  can  produce a successful outcome; SUFFICIENT.

The correct answer is B; statement 2 alone is sufficient.

PReciSioN · Answer

Is the question accurately posted? Could you cross check please  GMATinsight  . The OE doesn't seem to match with the statements.

GMATinsight · Answer

PReciSioN

Cross-checked again... everything is perfect in my posts on this thread...(Screenshot Attached)

PReciSioN · Answer

Thank you so much  GMATinsight  !

This mismatch seems to be quite unlike GMAC.

sayan640 · Answer

MartyMurray  I chose E.  How come it's option B ? Can you please help me on this ?  KarishmaB

MartyMurray · Answer

I agree that (E) is the correct answer. So, this question is an example of a busted official question, which is a rare thing, but not completely unheard of.

Gemmie · Answer

Statement 1:  Some interdisciplinary research groups experience conflict and rivalry.

This highlights a potential hurdle within collaborations, but it doesn't directly address success. Conflict can exist within successful collaborations as well.

Statement 2:  A peer-reviewed and well-regarded interdisciplinary review of published papers on urban greening trends found that there was little if any evidence that planting more trees in an urban area significantly improved air quality there.

This statement provides an example of an interdisciplinary review that has been peer-reviewed and published. The outcome of this review is a conclusion about the impact of urban greening on air quality, but the key point is that it was a successful outcome in the sense that it was reported in a peer-reviewed academic publication

==> Sufficient

==> Answer is B

Freddy12 · Answer

chetan2u   KarishmaB   GMATNinja  I marked E because the word "blind" wasn't mentioned in statement 2. 
Can you help me where I am going wrong?

KarishmaB · Answer

Yes, I would want to know that the peer-review was a blind peer-review and  I would also worry about whether it was "reported in a blind peer-reviewed academic publication."
Does peer-reviewed necessarily mean reported in an academic publication which is peer-reviewed, I am not sure.

abdatta · Answer

Here's why I chose B. The question has 3 criteria:
1) should be reported in an academic publication; in other words, it should be a published paper.
2) should be peer-reviewed
3) the peer review should be blind

Option (2) says:
- it is "peer-reviewed" (criteria 2 check),
- it is a review of a "published" paper (criteria 1 check), and
- it is an "interdisciplinary review", which, in my understanding, means it is a "blind" review (criteria 3 check).

Why did I understand that "interdisciplinary" means "blind"? Because to me, a person who is from a different discipline is unlikely to know who or what this paper is about. So, it sounded to me like a blind review.

However, if this is not the correct understanding, then I agree the "blind" part is not explained by any of the options, and in that case, it should be E.

Elite097 · Answer

KarishmaB  I know you have already identified issues with st 2 but i have a different issue with that st - pls tell me whether that is something missing too- question asks us specifically about 'interdisciplinary collaborations' on research projects , which is different from 'interdisciplinary review', which is performed on the former mentioned research. I cannot see where st 2 states, indicates or implies whether the research on greening trends is an interdisiplinary collaboration. It simply talks about the research w/o indicating whether is an interdisciplinary collaboration so how are we concluding based on this aspect alone that this st is insufficient, (if we keep aside the two issues pointed by you aside for a moment)

KarishmaB · Answer

I am not going to fuss about that. 
Collaboration is just working together - in whatever capacity. If I produce a paper on microbiology and get it reviewed from an expert of another discipline such as neurology to see whether it conflicts with their understanding of the human body, it can certainly be called an interdisciplinary collaboration. 
Peer review is review from people in your industry. Once the paper is ready, then there would be a blind peer review where other experts from microbiology will review whether my claim makes sense and I wouldn't know who those experts are.

ishudya · Answer

"peer-reviewed and well-regarded"  does not necessarily indicate that it was " reported in a blind peer-reviewed academic publication"

The interdisciplinary review mentioned in statement 2 could have been peer-reviewed but rejected. Or it could have been published but  not  in an   academic   publication. Plus nowhere does it say whether the review process was  blind  or not.

So I feel that the correct answer should be E.

MalachiKeti · Answer

Hi  AjiteshArun  any comments on answer being right or wrong from GMAC?
In statement 2 the interdisciplinary review (an eg of interdisciplinary collaboration) is nowhere mentioned to be

- published/reported
- based on blind review

mbaprepavi · Answer

Poorly framed question
Answer has to be E.

SundayRoast · Answer

How can we say B when the question clearly states " blind  peer-reviewed academic publication" and not just a "peer-reviewed academic publication" which are 2 very different things

A research project has a successful outcome if its research is

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