Interdisciplinary Collaboration between Natural and Social Sciences – Status and Trends Exemplified in Groundwater Research

Abstract

Interdisciplinary collaboration, particularly between natural and social sciences, is perceived as crucial to solving the significant challenges facing humanity. However, despite the need for such collaboration being expressed more frequently and intensely, it remains unclear to what degree such collaboration actually takes place, what trends and developments there are and which actors are involved. Previous studies, often based on bibliometric analysis of large bodies of literature, partly observed an increase in interdisciplinary collaboration in general, but in particular, the collaboration among distant fields was less explored. Other more qualitative studies found that interdisciplinary collaboration, particularly between natural and social scientists was not well developed, and obstacles abounded. To shed some light on the actual status and developments of this collaboration, we performed an analysis based on a sample of articles on groundwater research. We first identified journals and articles therein that potentially combined natural and social science aspects of groundwater research. Next, we analysed the disciplinary composition of their authors’ teams, cited references, titles and keywords, making use of our detailed personal expertise in groundwater research and its interdisciplinary aspects. We combined several indicators developed from this analysis into a final classification of the degree of multidisciplinarity of each article. Covering the period between 1990 and 2014, we found that the overall percentage of multidisciplinary articles was in the low single-digit range, with only slight increases over the past decades. The interdisciplinarity of individuals plays a major role compared to interdisciplinarity involving two or more researchers. If collaboration with natural sciences takes place, social science is represented most often by economists. As a side result, we found that journals publishing multidisciplinary research had lower impact factors on average, and multidisciplinary papers were cited much less than mono-disciplinary ones.

Fostering Interdisciplinarity: Implications for Social Sciences

“…These concepts are, sometimes, used in a similar way, although they have subtle differences (Barthel, & Seidl, 2017;Stock, & Burton, 2011). Something similar happens regarding the concept of interdisciplinarity itself (Razmak, & Bé langer, 2016).…”

“…Interdisciplinarity, the combined use of some disciplines that can promote reciprocal transformations in each of these disciplines (Morval, 1993;Hamel, 1997), is characterised by an intense collaboration between disciplines to the point of a potential dissolution of their boundaries in the development of synergies; pluridisciplinarity, the combined and restrictive use of disciplines or elements of these disciplines without such use modifying the elements or the disciplines (Morval, 1993;Hamel, 1997); transdisciplinarity, the interaction between two or more disciplines aiming at the creation of a new discipline on the basis of the articulation of certain constituent elements of these disciplines (e.g. criminology and Morin's theory of complexity; Morval, 1993;Hamel, 1997), involves the cooperation between scientists and other publics, such as practitioners, decision makers or the public (Barthel, & Seidl, 2017).…”

Editor’s Message: How much interdisciplinary collaboration between the natural and social sciences is there in groundwater research?

“…Some use trans-disciplinarity as a synonym for interdisciplinarity, while Roland Barthel is an associate editor of Hydrogeology Journal * Roland Barthel roland.barthel@gvc.gu.se others describe it as a concept of integrating non-scientists in planning and performing research (e.g., Pohl 2011). In the context of the results reported in the next section, it is important to note the distinction between inter-and multidisciplinarity made in Barthel and Seidl (2017) and Seidl and Barthel (2017), where multi-disciplinary collaboration is regarded as any form of collaboration between scientific disciplines (in parallel, sequentially), while interdisciplinary collaboration is seen as a truly collaborative joint research effort. Note that the quantitative measurements performed in Barthel and Seidl (2017) can, at best, detect and quantify multi-disciplinarity.…”

“…In the context of the results reported in the next section, it is important to note the distinction between inter-and multidisciplinarity made in Barthel and Seidl (2017) and Seidl and Barthel (2017), where multi-disciplinary collaboration is regarded as any form of collaboration between scientific disciplines (in parallel, sequentially), while interdisciplinary collaboration is seen as a truly collaborative joint research effort. Note that the quantitative measurements performed in Barthel and Seidl (2017) can, at best, detect and quantify multi-disciplinarity. A clarification is also needed as to what is understood as Bsocial sciences^in the context of those measurements.…”

“…Finally, we looked at the content of the articles identified as potentially being the result of a collaboration between natural and social scientists. The full methodology, results and the data used are published in Barthel and Seidl (2017). Here we would like to summarise some key findings with potential relevance for the readers of Hydrogeology Journal.…”