IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/respol/v50y2021i9s0048733321001335.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

“Perspective: Promoting and fostering multidisciplinary research in universities”

Author

Listed:
  • Arnold, Austin
  • Cafer, Anne
  • Green, John
  • Haines, Seena
  • Mann, Georgianna
  • Rosenthal, Meagen

Abstract

Focus on interdisciplinary research has become necessary for contemporary research endeavors to keep pace with the complex issues facing society. However, the current academic system has not adapted to foster interdisciplinary research among university faculty and researchers. Faculty seeking promotion and tenure often experience pressure to complete individual scholarly work to gain appropriate recognition for the promotion and tenure process. This commentary outlines a series of recommendations for faculty, department chairs, centers and institutes, and university administration to promote interdisciplinary research based on experiences with a university initiative intended to foster interdisciplinary research. Many of these recommendations, such as increasing communication, are activities that faculty and chairs can implement immediately. Other recommendations will take more time and financial investment from universities. The authors hope this commentary helps other institutions innovate efficiently to support interdisciplinary research that can address the growing complexity of problems facing our communities and the world.

Suggested Citation

  • Arnold, Austin & Cafer, Anne & Green, John & Haines, Seena & Mann, Georgianna & Rosenthal, Meagen, 2021. "“Perspective: Promoting and fostering multidisciplinary research in universities”," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 50(9).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:respol:v:50:y:2021:i:9:s0048733321001335
    DOI: 10.1016/j.respol.2021.104334
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048733321001335
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.respol.2021.104334?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Klein, Julie Thompson & Falk-Krzesinski, Holly J., 2017. "Interdisciplinary and collaborative work: Framing promotion and tenure practices and policies," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 46(6), pages 1055-1061.
    2. Rosenfield, Patricia L., 1992. "The potential of transdisciplinary research for sustaining and extending linkages between the health and social sciences," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 35(11), pages 1343-1357, December.
    3. Leahey, Erin & Barringer, Sondra N., 2020. "Universities’ commitment to interdisciplinary research: To what end?," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 49(2).
    4. Jha, Yamini & Welch, Eric W., 2010. "Relational mechanisms governing multifaceted collaborative behavior of academic scientists in six fields of science and engineering," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(9), pages 1174-1184, November.
    5. Millar, Morgan M., 2013. "Interdisciplinary research and the early career: The effect of interdisciplinary dissertation research on career placement and publication productivity of doctoral graduates in the sciences," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 42(5), pages 1152-1164.
    6. Veronica Boix Mansilla & Irwin Feller & Howard Gardner, 2006. "Quality assessment in interdisciplinary research and education," Research Evaluation, Oxford University Press, vol. 15(1), pages 69-74, April.
    7. Melinda Harm Benson & Christopher D. Lippitt & Ryan Morrison & Barbara Cosens & Jan Boll & Brian C. Chaffin & Alexander K. Fremier & Robert Heinse & Derek Kauneckis & Timothy E. Link & Caroline E. Scr, 2016. "Five ways to support interdisciplinary work before tenure," Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, Springer;Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences, vol. 6(2), pages 260-267, June.
    8. Wagner, Caroline S. & Roessner, J. David & Bobb, Kamau & Klein, Julie Thompson & Boyack, Kevin W. & Keyton, Joann & Rafols, Ismael & Börner, Katy, 2011. "Approaches to understanding and measuring interdisciplinary scientific research (IDR): A review of the literature," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 5(1), pages 14-26.
    9. Barry Bozeman & Monica Gaughan & Jan Youtie & Catherine P. Slade & Heather Rimes, 2016. "Research collaboration experiences, good and bad: Dispatches from the front lines," Science and Public Policy, Oxford University Press, vol. 43(2), pages 226-244.
    10. Jasjit Singh & Lee Fleming, 2010. "Lone Inventors as Sources of Breakthroughs: Myth or Reality?," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 56(1), pages 41-56, January.
    11. Siedlok, Frank & Hibbert, Paul & Sillince, John, 2015. "From practice to collaborative community in interdisciplinary research contexts," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 44(1), pages 96-107.
    12. Patricia J. Gumport & Stuart K. Snydman, 2002. "The Formal Organization of Knowledge," The Journal of Higher Education, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 73(3), pages 375-408, May.
    13. Sondra N. Barringer & Erin Leahey & Karina Salazar, 2020. "What Catalyzes Research Universities to Commit to Interdisciplinary Research?," Research in Higher Education, Springer;Association for Institutional Research, vol. 61(6), pages 679-705, September.
    14. Schilling, Melissa A. & Green, Elad, 2011. "Recombinant search and breakthrough idea generation: An analysis of high impact papers in the social sciences," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 40(10), pages 1321-1331.
    15. Veronica Boix Mansilla, 2006. "Assessing expert interdisciplinary work at the frontier: an empirical exploration," Research Evaluation, Oxford University Press, vol. 15(1), pages 17-29, April.
    16. W James Jacob, 2015. "Interdisciplinary trends in higher education," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 1(palcomms2), pages 15001-15001, January.
    17. Xiaolin Shi & Lada A Adamic & Belle L Tseng & Gavin S Clarkson, 2009. "The Impact of Boundary Spanning Scholarly Publications and Patents," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 4(8), pages 1-7, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Luka Ursić & Godfrey Baldacchino & Željana Bašić & Ana Belén Sainz & Ivan Buljan & Miriam Hampel & Ivana Kružić & Mia Majić & Ana Marušić & Franck Thetiot & Ružica Tokalić & Leandra Vranješ Markić, 2022. "Factors Influencing Interdisciplinary Research and Industry-Academia Collaborations at Six European Universities: A Qualitative Study," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(15), pages 1-24, July.
    2. ZHU Chen & MOTOHASHI Kazuyuki, 2022. "Government R&D spending as a driving force of technology convergence," Discussion papers 22030, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    3. Thelwall, Mike & Kousha, Kayvan & Stuart, Emma & Makita, Meiko & Abdoli, Mahshid & Wilson, Paul & Levitt, Jonathan, 2023. "Do bibliometrics introduce gender, institutional or interdisciplinary biases into research evaluations?," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 52(8).
    4. Fontana, Magda & Iori, Martina & Leone Sciabolazza, Valerio & Souza, Daniel, 2022. "The interdisciplinarity dilemma: Public versus private interests," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 51(7).
    5. Chen Zhu & Kazuyuki Motohashi, 2023. "Government R&D spending as a driving force of technology convergence: a case study of the Advanced Sequencing Technology Program," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 128(5), pages 3035-3065, May.
    6. Maru Mormina & Bernhard Müller & Guido Caniglia & Eivind Engebretsen & Henriette Löffler-Stastka & James Marcum & Mathew Mercuri & Elisabeth Paul & Holger Pfaff & Federica Russo & Joachim Sturmberg & , 2024. "Where to after COVID-19? Systems thinking for a human-centred approach to pandemics," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 1-7, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Fontana, Magda & Iori, Martina & Leone Sciabolazza, Valerio & Souza, Daniel, 2022. "The interdisciplinarity dilemma: Public versus private interests," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 51(7).
    2. Erin Leahey & Sondra N. Barringer & Misty Ring-Ramirez, 2019. "Universities’ structural commitment to interdisciplinary research," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 118(3), pages 891-919, March.
    3. Leahey, Erin & Barringer, Sondra N., 2020. "Universities’ commitment to interdisciplinary research: To what end?," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 49(2).
    4. Bethany K Laursen & Nicole Motzer & Kelly J Anderson, 2022. "Pathways for assessing interdisciplinarity: A systematic review," Research Evaluation, Oxford University Press, vol. 31(3), pages 326-343.
    5. Carr, Gemma & Loucks, Daniel P. & Blöschl, Günter, 2018. "Gaining insight into interdisciplinary research and education programmes: A framework for evaluation," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 47(1), pages 35-48.
    6. Meijun Liu & Sijie Yang & Yi Bu & Ning Zhang, 2023. "Female early-career scientists have conducted less interdisciplinary research in the past six decades: evidence from doctoral theses," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 10(1), pages 1-16, December.
    7. Andrew S. Hanks & Kevin M. Kniffin & Xuechao Qian & Bo Wang & Bruce A. Weinberg, 2022. "First Foot Forward: A Two-Step Econometric Method for Parsing and Estimating the Impacts of Multiple Identities," NBER Working Papers 30293, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. Ramani, Ravi S. & Aguinis, Herman & Coyle-Shapiro, Jacqueline A.M., 2022. "Defining, measuring, and rewarding scholarly impact: mind the level of analysis," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 117286, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    9. Andrea Bonaccorsi & Nicola Melluso & Francesco Alessandro Massucci, 2022. "Exploring the antecedents of interdisciplinarity at the European Research Council: a topic modeling approach," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 127(12), pages 6961-6991, December.
    10. Tracy Klarenbeek & Nelius Boshoff, 2018. "Measuring multidisciplinary health research at South African universities: a comparative analysis based on co-authorships and journal subject categories," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 116(3), pages 1461-1485, September.
    11. Oviedo-García, M. Ángeles, 2016. "Tourism research quality: Reviewing and assessing interdisciplinarity," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 586-592.
    12. Jonathan Bendor & Scott E. Page, 2019. "Optimal team composition for tool‐based problem solving," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(4), pages 734-764, November.
    13. Libo Sheng & Dongqing Lyu & Xuanmin Ruan & Hongquan Shen & Ying Cheng, 2023. "The association between prior knowledge and the disruption of an article," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 128(8), pages 4731-4751, August.
    14. Rafols, Ismael & Leydesdorff, Loet & O’Hare, Alice & Nightingale, Paul & Stirling, Andy, 2012. "How journal rankings can suppress interdisciplinary research: A comparison between Innovation Studies and Business & Management," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 41(7), pages 1262-1282.
    15. repec:oup:rseval:v:32:y:2024:i:2:p:213-227. is not listed on IDEAS
    16. Banal-Estañol, Albert & Macho-Stadler, Inés & Pérez-Castrillo, David, 2019. "Evaluation in research funding agencies: Are structurally diverse teams biased against?," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(7), pages 1823-1840.
    17. Froese, Anna & Woiwode, Hendrik & Suckow, Silvio, 2019. "Mission Impossible? Neue Wege zu Interdisziplinarität: Empfehlungen für Wissenschaft, Wissenschaftspolitik und Praxis," Discussion Papers, Research Group Science Policy Studies SP III 2019-601, WZB Berlin Social Science Center.
    18. Dellaportas, Steven & Xu, Lina & Yang, Zhiqiang, 2022. "The level of cross-disciplinarity in cross-disciplinary accounting research: analysis and suggestions for improvement," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    19. Solomon, Gregg E.A. & Youtie, Jan & Carley, Stephen & Porter, Alan L., 2019. "What people learn about how people learn: An analysis of citation behavior and the multidisciplinary flow of knowledge," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(9), pages 1-1.
    20. Sharma, Anuj & Nunkoo, Robin & Rana, Nripendra P. & Dwivedi, Yogesh K., 2021. "On the intellectual structure and influence of tourism social science research," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    21. Yan, Hong-Bin & Li, Ming, 2022. "Consumer demand based recombinant search for idea generation," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 175(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:respol:v:50:y:2021:i:9:s0048733321001335. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/respol .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.