Why do academic scientists engage in interdisciplinary research?

Abstract

: This article provides a first empirical study of the determinants of the interdisciplinarity of academic researchers production. For that purpose we measure interdisciplinarity as the diversity of their research production across scientific domains. Our evidence is based on more than nine hundred permanent researchers employed by a large French university which is ranked first among French universities in terms of Impact. Our main results are that the traditional academic career incentives do not stimulate interdisciplinary research while having connections with industry does. The context of work in the laboratory strongly affects the propensity to undertake interdisciplinary research. Key words : Economics of science, Academic incentives, Interdisciplinary research, Laboratory, University. JEL classification : L31, 031, 032, 034, 038. * Corresponding author. BETA, PEGE-ULP, 61, avenue de la Forêt Noire, F-67085, Strasbourg Cedex ; tel : +33-390242104 ; fax : +33-390242071 ; email : <carayol@cournot.u-strasbg.fr>.φ This work is part of a larger project on knowledge production at ULP. We are grateful to P. Llerena, M. Matt, S. Wolff and all other members of the team. L. Bach's comments helped us to improve the paper. Acknowledgements extend to the administrative departments and the Technology Transfer Office at ULP, and to the CNRS Industrial Liaison Office.

Research collaboration in the social sciences: What factors are associated with disciplinary and interdisciplinary collaboration?

“…Ziman (1994) argued that this was much more likely to be the case in some disciplines than in others. Carayol and Thi (2005) found that university researchers who had co-published with an industry-based researcher increased interdisciplinary involvement. They also found that a research lab that are less reliant on recurrent funding and more on multiple channels of project funding were more involved in problem-solving and interdisciplinary research.…”

“…Hagstrom (1965) argued that applied research was inherently more interdisciplinary. However, the relationship between applied research and interdisciplinary collaboration is both supported (Carayol and Thi, 2005;van Rijnsoever and Hessels, 2011) and questioned (Schummer, 2004) in the literature. The orientation of individual researchers toward knowledge creation or application will vary, and may also impact on their propensity to become involved in interdisciplinary research.…”

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

“…Most likely, that does not mean that collaboration does not take place, but that the respective results are published by other journals with lower impact, or not in journals at all. The literature on interdisciplinarity provides some explanations relating to a lack of reviewers with interdisciplinary training, as well as the assumed negative possible impacts on the career options of young scientists among others (e.g., Carayol and Nguyen Thi 2005;Rylance 2015).…”

Shifting Paradigms in Information Flow: An Open Science Framework (OSF) for Knowledge Sharing Teams

“…These internal conflicts can impede one's ability to adequately share information, trust a team or network, and even hamper the advancement of a science program especially if knowledge is withheld as a result of such insecurities . Loss aversion (Fox & Faver, 1984;Georghiou, 1988;Sonnenwald, 2007), lack of recognition and reward (Dasgupta & David, 1994;Turpin & Garrett-Jones, 2010), concerns about achieving promotion and tenure (Carayol & Thi, 2005;Coleman, 1986;Harris, Lyon, & Clarke, 2009;Horlick-Jones & Sime, 2004;Maglaughlin & Sonnenwald, 2005;Rhoten & Parker, 2004;Zucker, 2012), and authorship embattlements (Barrett, Funk, & Macrina, 2005;Lewis, Ross, & Holden, 2012;Stokols et al, 2008) are just a few of the issues that can ensue from within a scientific team that struggles with diverse attitudes about knowledge sharing.…”