Interdisciplinarity in Research Evaluation

Abstract

The evaluation of interdisciplinary research is complicated by ambiguity about what interdisciplinarity is and what it should be. The question is topical, as evaluation plays an important role in how science is being shaped and changed today. The chapter performs a meta-analysis of the concept of interdisciplinarity in research evaluation, and gives an epistemic account of what would be involved in such evaluations. First, it discusses the various ways interdisciplinarity can add value to the disciplinary organization of academia and their respective implications for research evaluation. Second, it provides tools for mapping and measuring these value-added properties and illustrates what kind of evidence they can convey to research evaluations. The combined examination of values and indicators enables a more differentiated understanding of what exactly to look at when evaluating interdisciplinary research—and more generally, how to design research evaluations from an interdisciplinary point of view.

Publishing Interdisciplinary Research in Business & Society

“…Finally, interdisciplinary papers must meet the quality standards of each of the underlying disciplines in terms of originality, theoretical development, and methodological quality (Huutoniemi, 2010). However, there is also a good argument by some practitioners of interdisciplinary research that its purpose is precisely to transcend the narrowly defined problems examined by the disciplines, so that the standards of evaluation of individual disciplines may need to be relaxed and even transformed (Huutoniemi, 2010). Whatever the approach taken by the researcher, the purpose and approach need to be expressed clearly at the outset, so that the appropriate standards are used to evaluate the new insights that should emerge from the interplay among the different disciplines.…”

A survey on the construction methods and applications of sci-tech big data knowledge graph

“…语义上的关联可以解释学科内的 话题的变化 [139] , 同样的交叉学科的产生可以依据语义上的关联进行发现. 交叉学科的评价研究中, 交叉学科研究的评价的复杂在于交叉学科定义 [140] , 交叉学科在定义上 指代着一些具有价值的、覆盖多学科知识面的学科, 它包含了单学科所难以发现的知识. 一般来说, 评 价交叉学科首先应该评价的是学科间交换的知识的量 [141] , 目前, 关于交叉学科的评价问题主要集中 在: 第 1, 由于交叉学科来源于跨越学科间隔的研究, 故难以在目前现有的标准中找到对交叉学科的评 价方法; 第 2, 在推选同行进行研究评价时, 由于学科间的偏见的存在, 难以准确找到合适的专家对交 叉学科进行客观评价; 第 3, 没有一个基本的度量来对交叉学科的交叉性进行评价.…”

“…并且, 由于交叉学 科所涉及的概念太多, 这方面决定性的讨论也陷入了困境 [142,143] . 在对交叉学科所提供的价值的研究 中, 认同度比较大的是交叉学科所带来的主题、视角的宽度 [140] . 将视角放宽于不止一个学科、领域 或者研究方向能为学者带来跨领域间的高效知识交换, 同时能够减少并抵制学科内的闭塞与自引用现 象, 从长久来看会给学科带来进步并为困难问题提出新的解决思路 [144] .…”

“…依据对交叉学 科的价值的讨论, 我们可以提出一些对于这些价值的度量方式. 文献 [140] 将学科交叉的评价的度量 方式分为多样性和一致性, 这二者用以评价学科主题的宽度与聚合程度. 对于多样性的评价主要是学 科的多样性影响学科内部组成成分 (比如说研究者、文章、资助来源), 并使这些成分的分布更加平衡, 或者这些元素的分布将会跨越更多学科领域 [144] .…”

“…针对学科领域, 可以采取热点图的形式将学科研究方向可视化, 以分析其内部有助于交换信息的交叉学科研究领域. 文献 [140] 将管理学与经济学的研究成果、期刊、研究方向等进行可视化, 可以发现聚合在一起的大 多是学科本身的核心研究发现, 在边缘的大多是一些与科学、科技以及创新领域相关的研究方向, 这 也是一种衡量交叉学科价值的方式. (3) 主题词角度的科技实体演变.…”