IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/pal/palcom/v7y2020i1d10.1057_s41599-020-00540-9.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A practical guideline how to tackle interdisciplinarity—A synthesis from a post-graduate group project

Author

Listed:
  • Max Oke Kluger

    (University of Bremen)

  • Gerhard Bartzke

    (University of Bremen)

Abstract

The comprehensive understanding of increasingly complex global challenges, such as climate change induced sea level rise demands for interdisciplinary research groups. As a result, there is an increasing interest of funding bodies to support interdisciplinary research initiatives. Attempts for interdisciplinary research in such programs often end in research between closely linked disciplines. This is often due to a lack of understanding about how to work interdisciplinarily as a group. Useful practical guidelines have been provided to overcome existing barriers during interdisciplinary integration. Working as an interdisciplinary research group becomes particularly challenging at the doctoral student level. This study reports findings of an interdisciplinary group project in which a group of doctoral students and postdoctoral researchers from various disciplines faced the challenges of reconciling natural, social, and legal aspects of a fictional coastal environmental problem. The research group went through three phases of interdisciplinary integration: (1) comparing disciplines, (2) understanding disciplines, and (3) thinking between disciplines. These phases finally resulted in the development of a practical guideline, including five concepts of interactive integration. A reflective analysis with observations made in existing literature about interdisciplinary integration further supported the feasibility of the practical guideline. It is intended that this practical guideline may help others to leave out pitfalls and to gain a more successful application of interdisciplinarity in their training.

Suggested Citation

  • Max Oke Kluger & Gerhard Bartzke, 2020. "A practical guideline how to tackle interdisciplinarity—A synthesis from a post-graduate group project," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 7(1), pages 1-11, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:pal:palcom:v:7:y:2020:i:1:d:10.1057_s41599-020-00540-9
    DOI: 10.1057/s41599-020-00540-9
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1057/s41599-020-00540-9
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1057/s41599-020-00540-9?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. Sonia Talwar & Arnim Wiek & John Robinson, 2011. "User engagement in sustainability research," Science and Public Policy, Oxford University Press, vol. 38(5), pages 379-390, June.
    2. Rick Rylance, 2015. "Grant giving: Global funders to focus on interdisciplinarity," Nature, Nature, vol. 525(7569), pages 313-315, September.
    3. Wolsink, Maarten, 2007. "Wind power implementation: The nature of public attitudes: Equity and fairness instead of 'backyard motives'," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 11(6), pages 1188-1207, August.
    4. Ana Viseu, 2015. "Integration of social science into research is crucial," Nature, Nature, vol. 525(7569), pages 291-291, September.
    5. David Budtz Pedersen, 2016. "Integrating social sciences and humanities in interdisciplinary research," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 2(1), pages 1-7, December.
    6. Lisa Palmer, 2018. "Meeting the leadership challenges for interdisciplinary environmental research," Nature Sustainability, Nature, vol. 1(7), pages 330-333, July.
    7. Berkenhagen, Jörg & Döring, Ralf & Fock, Heino O. & Kloppmann, Matthias H.F. & Pedersen, Søren A. & Schulze, Torsten, 2010. "Decision bias in marine spatial planning of offshore wind farms: Problems of singular versus cumulative assessments of economic impacts on fisheries," Marine Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(3), pages 733-736, May.
    8. Virginia Gewin, 2014. "Interdisciplinary research: Break out," Nature, Nature, vol. 511(7509), pages 371-373, July.
    9. 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.
    10. Pius Krütli & Michael Stauffacher & Thomas Flüeler & Roland W. Scholz, 2010. "Functional-dynamic public participation in technological decision-making: site selection processes of nuclear waste repositories," Journal of Risk Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 13(7), pages 861-875, October.
    11. Nicole Bergen & Alzahra Hudani & Selim Khan & Natalie D. Montgomery & Tracey O’Sullivan, 2020. "Practical considerations for establishing writing groups in interdisciplinary programs," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 6(1), pages 1-6, December.
    12. Richard Van Noorden, 2015. "Interdisciplinary research by the numbers," Nature, Nature, vol. 525(7569), pages 306-307, September.
    13. Rebekah R. Brown & Ana Deletic & Tony H. F. Wong, 2015. "Interdisciplinarity: How to catalyse collaboration," Nature, Nature, vol. 525(7569), pages 315-317, September.
    14. Lindell Bromham & Russell Dinnage & Xia Hua, 2016. "Interdisciplinary research has consistently lower funding success," Nature, Nature, vol. 534(7609), pages 684-687, June.
    15. Brandt, Patric & Ernst, Anna & Gralla, Fabienne & Luederitz, Christopher & Lang, Daniel J. & Newig, Jens & Reinert, Florian & Abson, David J. & von Wehrden, Henrik, 2013. "A review of transdisciplinary research in sustainability science," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 1-15.
    16. Christopher Kennedy & Lawrence Baker & Shobhakar Dhakal & Anu Ramaswami, 2012. "Sustainable Urban Systems," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 16(6), pages 775-779, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Shahadat Uddin & Tasadduq Imam & Mohammad Mozumdar, 2021. "Research interdisciplinarity: STEM versus non-STEM," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 126(1), pages 603-618, January.
    2. Zhang, Yang & Wang, Yang & Du, Haifeng & Havlin, Shlomo, 2024. "Delayed citation impact of interdisciplinary research," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 18(1).
    3. Fontana, Magda & Iori, Martina & Leone Sciabolazza, Valerio & Souza, Daniel, 2022. "The interdisciplinarity dilemma: Public versus private interests," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 51(7).
    4. Marco Seeber & Jef Vlegels & Mattia Cattaneo, 2022. "Conditions that do or do not disadvantage interdisciplinary research proposals in project evaluation," Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 73(8), pages 1106-1126, August.
    5. Sixian Hah, 2020. "Valuation discourses and disciplinary positioning struggles of academic researchers—A case study of ‘maverick’ academics," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 6(1), pages 1-11, December.
    6. Roland Barthel & Roman Seidl, 2017. "Interdisciplinary Collaboration between Natural and Social Sciences – Status and Trends Exemplified in Groundwater Research," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(1), pages 1-27, January.
    7. Alexander M. Petersen & Mohammed E. Ahmed & Ioannis Pavlidis, 2021. "Grand challenges and emergent modes of convergence science," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 8(1), pages 1-15, December.
    8. Zuo, Zhiya & Zhao, Kang, 2018. "The more multidisciplinary the better? – The prevalence and interdisciplinarity of research collaborations in multidisciplinary institutions," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 12(3), pages 736-756.
    9. Lina Xu & Steven Dellaportas & Zhiqiang Yang & Jin Wang, 2023. "More on the relationship between interdisciplinary accounting research and citation impact," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 63(4), pages 4779-4803, December.
    10. de Jong, Stefan P.L. & Wardenaar, Tjerk & Horlings, Edwin, 2016. "Exploring the promises of transdisciplinary research: A quantitative study of two climate research programmes," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(7), pages 1397-1409.
    11. Laurens K. Hessels & Stefan P.L. De Jong & Stijn Brouwer, 2018. "Collaboration between Heterogeneous Practitioners in Sustainability Research: A Comparative Analysis of Three Transdisciplinary Programmes," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(12), pages 1-16, December.
    12. Kateryna Wowk & Larry McKinney & Frank Muller-Karger & Russell Moll & Susan Avery & Elva Escobar-Briones & David Yoskowitz & Richard McLaughlin, 2017. "Evolving academic culture to meet societal needs," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 3(1), pages 1-7, December.
    13. Adena R. Rissman & Lori Barrow, 2019. "Characteristics of collaborative, interdisciplinary, and engaged research among graduate students in environmental conservation," Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, Springer;Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences, vol. 9(3), pages 297-310, September.
    14. Chen, Shiji & Qiu, Junping & Arsenault, Clément & Larivière, Vincent, 2021. "Exploring the interdisciplinarity patterns of highly cited papers," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 15(1).
    15. Ben Purvis & Hannah Keding & Ashley Lewis & Phil Northall, 2023. "Critical reflections of postgraduate researchers on a collaborative interdisciplinary research project," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 10(1), pages 1-13, December.
    16. Rob Alexander & Lori Britt & Elise Barrella, 2014. "Converging on sustainable placemaking through transdisciplinary process," Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, Springer;Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences, vol. 4(4), pages 301-309, December.
    17. Karolina Urbanska & Sylvie Huet & Serge Guimond, 2019. "Does increased interdisciplinary contact among hard and social scientists help or hinder interdisciplinary research?," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(9), pages 1-20, September.
    18. Kazuki Nakajima & Kazuyuki Shudo & Naoki Masuda, 2023. "Higher-order rich-club phenomenon in collaborative research grant networks," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 128(4), pages 2429-2446, April.
    19. Keisuke Okamura, 2019. "Interdisciplinarity revisited: evidence for research impact and dynamism," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 5(1), pages 1-9, December.
    20. Janaína Gomes & Homero Dewes, 2017. "Disciplinary dimensions and social relevance in the scientific communications on biofuels," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 110(3), pages 1173-1189, March.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:pal:palcom:v:7:y:2020:i:1:d:10.1057_s41599-020-00540-9. 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.nature.com/ .

    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.