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are few studies which clearly show a substantial reshaping of science, within the climate change field or elsewhere. The debate on interdisciplinarity has also been criticized as being conceptually confused and muddled with normative agendas (Godin
Abstract
We offer two metrics that together help gauge how interdisciplinary a body of research is. Both draw upon Web of Knowledge Subject Categories (SCs) as key units of analysis. We have assembled two substantial Web of Knowledge samples from which to determine how closely individual SCs relate to each other. “Integration” measures the extent to which a research article cites diverse SCs. “Specialization” considers the spread of SCs in which the body of research (e.g., the work of a given author in a specified time period) is published. Pilot results for a sample of researchers show a surprising degree of interdisciplinarity.
26 1 – 18 . Klein , J. T. 1990 Interdisciplinarity. History, Theory & Practice Wayne State University Press Detroit
results. Particularly problematic are studies of interdisciplinarity. As disciplines vary in communicative norms, one must take into account whether the type of genre studied equally represents the knowledge production and citations of all disciplines
changes in the intellectual base are related to changes in knowledge production, interdisciplinarity and citation practices. The results are discussed and explained in relation to earlier studies on the humanities and with the use of a theoretical
Abstract
Interdisciplinarity has become of increasing interest in science in the past few years. Thispaper is a case study in the area of Chemistry, in which a series of different bibliometric indicatorsfor measuring interdisciplinarity are presented. The following indicators are analysed: a) ISI multiclassificationof journals in categories, b) patterns of citations and references outside category andc) multi-assignation of documents in Chemical Abstracts sections. Convergence between thedifferent indicators is studied. Depending on the size of the unit analysed (area, category orjournal) the most appropriate indicators are determined.
Abstract
A set of scientometric indicators of interdisciplinary links between advancing fields of biomedicine is suggested. Twenty jounals listed in theJCR of theSCI for 1988 are analyzed. An index of interdisciplinarity for a given journal is calculated as the sum of ratios between the numbers of journals from all other disciplines (except for general-scientific and miscellaneous journals) and from the same discipline cited by that journal or citing it, and of ratios between the numbers of citations to and by these journals. Some interdisciplinary patterns of 20 andrology journal articles are scientometrically assessed, too. The combined usage of this method with co-classification and co-citation methodology can optimize interdisciplinarity evaluation and promotion.
Abstract
It is widely maintained that the study of policy alternatives, particularly if they are associated with introducing new tehcnologies that may engender vast social and environmental repercussions, ought to be interdisciplinary. There is, however, much confusion in the literature as to what exactly is meant by the term interdisciplinary. In the present paper, we quantitatively assess the extent of interdisciplinarity of studies and of research programs. First, we propose several working definitions of the concept of interdisciplinarity. Second, we consider the construction of indicators that quantify these definitions. Third, as an example, we examine whether or not a given policy oriented research program is truly interdisciplinary.
Abstract
The multidimensional character and inherent conflict with categorisation of interdisciplinarity makes its mapping and evaluation a challenging task. We propose a conceptual framework that aims to capture interdisciplinarity in the wider sense of knowledge integration, by exploring the concepts of diversity and coherence. Disciplinary diversity indicators are developed to describe the heterogeneity of a bibliometric set viewed from predefined categories, i.e. using a top-down approach that locates the set on the global map of science. Network coherence indicators are constructed to measure the intensity of similarity relations within a bibliometric set, i.e. using a bottom-up approach, which reveals the structural consistency of the publications network. We carry out case studies on individual articles in bionanoscience to illustrate how these two perspectives identify different aspects of interdisciplinarity: disciplinary diversity indicates the large-scale breadth of the knowledge base of a publication; network coherence reflects the novelty of its knowledge integration. We suggest that the combination of these two approaches may be useful for comparative studies of emergent scientific and technological fields, where new and controversial categorisations are accompanied by equally contested claims of novelty and interdisciplinarity.
Abstract
Interdisciplinary research has been encouraged through the policies of many governmental and institutional funding agencies in Korea. This paper measured the degrees of interdisciplinarity in individual and collaborative researches and analyzes the factors affecting it. This paper also examined flow of knowledge among different disciplines in science and engineering research using a database obtained from research proposals submitted to Korea Science and Engineering Foundation (KOSEF). The analysis indicated that 54.6% of collaborative research proposals were interdisciplinary, while 35.8% of individual research proposals were interdisciplinary. The analysis of knowledge inflow/outflow structure showed that Natural science served as a link between Life science and Engineering.
