Hi, Chimmy -

A simplified version of the commentator's argument might be:

"The details of academic research are always publicly available for checking, criticism, and use in other work. Open-source software is made similarly available for similar purposes, while proprietary software is not. Thus open-source software shows a more similar philosophy to that of academic scholarship, and should therefore be used exclusively by universities."

The conclusion follows IF we believe that the similar philosophy of open-source software to that of academic scholarship is a good reason for universities to use it in preference to other software. We should therefore choose the answer that implies this belief, which is 'C'.

( Note that although 'D' may appear to be a valid answer, its claim that such tools are more "efficient" is not reflected in the passage. The commentator's argument is based on an ideal, not on the practical concern of efficiency.)

Hi, all -

The passage argues that universities should use open-source software because the open-source model is philosophically similar to that of academic scholarship. There is no suggestion that using other forms of software would "block the goals of academic scholarship," which is why answer E is incorrect.

In fact, unless the academic research involves developing or modifying the software in question (again, neither stated nor hinted by the argument), the principles behind that software's creation are entirely irrelevant to the work that happens to use it as a tool. For example, an academic paper written in Microsoft Word (proprietary) is not significantly different from the same paper written in OpenOffice (open source) from all practical perspectives.

The argument is based solely on a philosophical principle, as reflected in the correct answer, C.

Please post again if you have further questions.

Best,
Lyn