Choice B is the best answer. The last two sentences of the seventh paragraph identify a particular research scenario that Malhotra uncovered in his study: "Even more troubling to Malhotra was the fact that two scientists whose initial studies 'didn't work out' went on to publish results based on a smaller sample. 'The non-TESS version of the same study, in which we used a student sample, did yield fruit,' noted one investigator." Since Malhotra especially objected to these researchers' suppression of data that produced null results and their subsequent publication of related data that were statistically significant, it can be inferred that the hypothetical situation to which he would most strongly object is one in which researchers publish their study results in a journal but exclude the portion of data that produced null results.
Choices A and D are incorrect because the seventh paragraph, which identifies a research scenario that Malhotra disapproved of, provides no basis for an inference that he would especially object to a team's insisting on publishing null results in a top journal only (choice A) or a team's expanding the scope of a study that had produced null results (choice D). Choice C is incorrect because although the first sentence of the seventh paragraph indicates Malhotra's concern that failing to publish null results can mean that other researchers unwittingly replicate strategies that produced null results in prior studies, the paragraph goes on to identify other scenarios as being "worse" and "even more troubling" from Malhotra's perspective.