Measuring researcher interdisciplinarity

Abstract

We offer two metrics that together help gauge how interdisciplinary a body of research is. Both draw upon Web of Knowledge Subject Categories (SCs) as key units of analysis. We have assembled two substantial Web of Knowledge samples from which to determine how closely individual SCs relate to each other. "Integration" measures the extent to which a research article cites diverse SCs. "Specialization" considers the spread of SCs in which the body of research (e.g., the work of a given author in a specified time period) is published. Pilot results for a sample of researchers show a surprising degree of interdisciplinarity.

A general framework for describing diversity within systems and similarity between systems with applications in informetrics

“…Porter et al (2007), Meyer (2007, 2010) actually integrated the three attributes of variety, evenness and similarity into one indicator. These authors introduced Stirling's diversity into scientometrics as a disciplinary diversity indicator of interdisciplinarity to describe the heterogeneity of a bibliometric set viewed from predefined categories, i.e., using a top-down approach that locates the set on the global map of science.…”

“…One of the potential uses of a map of science is to help us understand the cognitive base and the relative positions of emerging fields (Bordons et al 2004;Porter et al 2007;van Raan and van Leeuwen 2002). Leydesdorff (2007) explored network centralities as indicators of interdisciplinarity.…”

Paradigms to assess the environmental impact of manufactured nanomaterials

“…Analyzing authorship diversity confirms that the field of Nano EHS is a highly collaborative and integrative field. Porter et al [13] developed an integration score that measured the diversity among a given body of cited references. The more diverse or distinct the subject categories within a given list of works cited, the higher its integration score.…”

“…Further evidence of the collaborative nature of this science is the increasing trend in the number of authors and number of author affiliations working in Nano EHS publications. Porter et al [13] showed that both the mean author and affiliation counts for Nano EHS publications had statistically significant linear increases over time. Furthermore, slope analysis revealed that the average number of authors per year is increasing at a faster rate than the average number of author affiliations per year.…”

Hybrid Nanomaterials Research: Is ItReallyInterdisciplinary?

“…-Menéndez et al, 2001), the citation flows among disciplines (e.g. Porter and Chubin, 1985), and the co-occurrence of disciplines in references/citations (Porter et al, 2007) or in article headings (e.g. Tijssen, 1992).…”