medium · GMAT Verbal
A university dean examined papers published by the economics department over the last five years and found that papers circulated through the department's own working-paper series before journal submission were, on average, cited forty percent more often than papers submitted directly to journals. The dean now requires all faculty to circulate every paper through the working-paper series before submission, expecting this policy to raise the department's average citation count by a similar margin.
Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the dean's expectation?
- Faculty who used the working-paper series in the past tended to do so mainly for papers they considered their strongest and most likely to attract citations, while weaker papers were often sent directly to journals.
- The working-paper series requires that circulated papers follow a specific citation formatting style before posting.
- Several other university economics departments located across the country have working-paper series with mandatory submission requirements that are very similar to the ones described in the dean's newly proposed policy.
- Papers published in the department's top journals receive additional formatting support from the university's research office.
- The average time between a paper's first submission and its eventual publication has increased slightly over the past five years.
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