The increasing complexity of Scientific inquiry

[theboyfromforest]

This is a question from Powerscore CR bible:

The increasing complexity of scientific inquiry has led to a proliferation of multi authored technical articles. Reports of clinical trials involving patients from several hospitals are usually coauthored by physicians from each participating hospital. Likewise, physics papers reporting results from experiments using subsystems developed at various laboratories generally have authors from each laboratory.

If all of the above statements are true, which of the following statements must be true?

A. Clinical trials involving patients from several hospitals are never conducted solely by physicians from just one hospital.

B. Most reports of clinical trials involving patients from several hospitals have multiple authors.

C. When a technical artical has multiple authors, they are usually from different institutions.

D. Physics papers authored by researchers from multiple laboratories usually report results from experiments using subsystems developed at each laboratory.

E. Most technical articles are authored solely by the researchers who conducted the experiments these articles report.

[theboyfromforest]

My analysis for this problem:

A.
Clinical trial is a medical procedure. It is conducted on patients admitted in different hospitals by physicians in those hospitals. (Assumption: The same doctors from one hospital wont be going to all the participating hospitals and conducting the procedure. In a common sense way, isn't this right?) The results consolidated into a report by all the physicians who conducted the trial. So, the authors of the report are the one's who conducted the test. (Again, in a common sense approach, people who do an experiment are the authors of the report of that experiment). So, A should be the correct choice.

B is given as a correct answer. But, my argument against B:
This answer choice broadens the premise in the stimulus from "authors from each laboratory" to "multiple authors". "Multiple authors" can mean multiple physicians from same hospital which isn't the case.

D. Whats wrong with this choice?
E. Argument for A again holds this answer choice too.

I am pretty confused now.

[esledge]

Here's how I'd approach this one:

It's a Draw a Conclusion questions type, so only premises are given. The correct answer should not require any assumptions or logical leaps, no matter how probable they might be. The correct answer is likely to be a rephrase of one or more of the premises.

The argument can be diagrammed as follows
Increasing complexity --> More multi-author articles.

Example 1: Clinical trials: Patients from several hospitals --> authors USUALLY from those hospitals.

Example 2: Physics papers: Experiments using systems from various labs--> results GENERALLY reported by authors from those labs.

Now the choices, with key/limiting words emphasized
A. Clinical trials: Patients from several hospitals-->NEVER conducted by physicians from just one hospital. NEVER is too strong, this cannot be proven with the info given.

B. Clinical trianls: Patients from several hospitals --> MOST reporst have several authors. This is a very close restatement of Example 1.

C. Technical article: Multiple authors means various institutions are represented. Technical article too general, too much of a leap to turn the causation around. We are told that multiple institutions --> multiple authors, but you could have multiple authors from one institution, so you can't necessarily conclude that multiple authors -->multiple institutions.

D. Physics papers: Multiple authors from multiple labs -->experiments USUALLY used systems from multiple labs. Like (C), this turns the causation around. We are told that if multiple systems are used in the experiment, the report is written by authors at the lab that developed the system, but multiple authors might contribute to a paper for other reasons, too.

E. Technical articles: MOST authored only by researchers who conducted the experiments. The premise actually was that reports are authored by people who work at the institution where the experiment was done or the system developed, but that doesn't mean the authors were the people who actually ran the experiments.