An indicator of cross-disciplinary research

Investigation of possible indicators based in the open scientific literature to measure interdisciplinary research processes and performance suggests that citation across broad field categories (engineering, life sciences, physical sciences, and social sciences) is extremely infrequent.

Abstract

Study of interdisciplinary research processes and performance is hampered by a lack of data. This project investigated possible indicators based in the open scientific literature to measure such processes. Focusing on theJournal Citation Reports as a suitable data base, alternative indicators were validated on a sample of 383 articles drawn from 19 journals. The results support the use ofCitations Outside Category as an indicator of cross-disciplinary research activity. An estimated version of this indicator is used to examine three research categories — Demography, Operations Research/Management Science, and Toxicology — as to the extent of cross-disciplinary citation occurring by the journals in these categories and to them. Results suggest thatCitations Outside Category can be a quite informative bibliometric measure. A key substantive finding is that citation across broad field categories (engineering, life sciences, physical sciences, and social sciences) is extremely infrequent.