Interdisciplinarity metric based on the co-citation network

Quantifying the interdisciplinarity of a research is a relevant problem in the evaluative bibliometrics. The concept of interdisciplinarity is ambiguous and multidimensional. Thus, different measures of interdisciplinarity have been propose in the literature. However, few studies have proposed interdisciplinary metrics without previously defining classification sets, and no one use the co-citation network for this purpose. In this study we propose an interdisciplinary metric based on the co-citation network. This is a way to define the publication's field without resorting to pre-defined classification sets. We present a characterization of a publication's field and then we use this definition to propose a new metric of the interdisciplinarity degree for publications (papers) and journals as units of analysis. The proposed measure has an aggregative property that makes it scalable from a paper individually to a set of them (journal) without more than adding the numerators and denominators in the proportions that define this new indicator. Moreover, the aggregated value of two or more units is strictly among all the individual values.Comment: 9 pages, 2 figures, 1 tabl

Endophytic Fungi: A Natural Source of Bioactive Compounds and Biotechnological Applications

Endophytic fungi are microorganisms that live inside plants and are a promising source of bioactive molecules. These fungi have aroused a growing interest in research due to their ability to produce a variety of substances. Thus, this study aims to emphasize the relevance of endophytic fungi present in plants as a source of bioactive compounds, which have several applications in biotechnology. For this, scientometrics was used as a methodology, based on a search in the ScienceDirect database using the terms "endophytic fungi", "plants", "metabolites" and "biotechnological application" in a time frame between 2015 and 2022. These fungi have aroused a growing interest in research due to their ability to produce a variety of bioactive compounds. The interaction between endophytic fungi and plants is crucial for plant survival, and many of the compounds produced by fungi have biotechnological potential. Scientometrics revealed an increase in the number of publications on the subject, with emphasis on research studies and reviews. The prospection of endophytic fungi has focused on families of plants with medicinal attributes. These complex interactions between fungi and plants play an important role in plant health and development. Research in this area continues to grow, with many compounds identified as potential bioactive products in diverse biotechnological applications.Fungos endofíticos são microrganismos que vivem dentro das plantas e são uma fonte promissora de moléculas bioativas. Esses fungos têm despertado um crescente interesse na pesquisa, devido à sua capacidade de produzir uma variedade de substâncias. Deste modo, este estudo tem como objetivo enfatizar a relevância dos fungos endofíticos presentes nas plantas como fonte de compostos bioativos, os quais têm diversas aplicações na biotecnologia. Para isso, utilizou-se a cienciometria como metodologia, a partir de uma busca na base de dados ScienceDirect utilizando os termos "endophytic fungi", "plants", "metabolites" e "biotechnological application" em um recorte temporal entre 2015 a 2022. Esses fungos têm despertado um crescente interesse na pesquisa, devido à sua capacidade de produzir uma variedade de compostos bioativos. A interação entre fungos endofíticos e plantas é crucial para a sobrevivência das plantas, e muitos dos compostos produzidos pelos fungos têm potencial biotecnológico. A cienciometria revelou um aumento no número de publicações sobre o tema, com destaque para estudos de pesquisa e revisões. A prospecção de fungos endofíticos tem se concentrado em famílias de plantas com atributos medicinais. Essas interações complexas entre fungos e plantas desempenham um papel importante na saúde e desenvolvimento das plantas. A pesquisa nessa área continua a crescer, com muitos compostos identificados como potenciais produtos bioativos em diversas aplicações biotecnológicas

Indicating interdisciplinarity: A multidimensional framework to characterize Interdisciplinary Knowledge Flow (IKF)

This study contributes to the recent discussions on indicating interdisciplinarity, i.e., going beyond mere metrics of interdisciplinarity. We propose a multi-dimensional and contextual framework to improve the granularity and usability of the existing methodology for quantifying the interdisciplinary knowledge flow (IKF) in which scientific disciplines import and export knowledge from/to other disciplines. To characterize the knowledge exchange between disciplines, we recognize three dimensions under this framework, namely, broadness, intensity, and heterogeneity. We show that each dimension covers a different aspect of IKF, especially between disciplines with the largest volume of IKF, and can assist in uncovering different types of interdisciplinarity. We apply this framework in two use cases, one at the level of disciplines and one at the level of journals, to show how it can offer a more holistic and detailed viewpoint on the interdisciplinarity of scientific entities than plain citation counts. We further compare our proposed framework, an indicating process, with established indicators and discuss how such information tools on interdisciplinarity can assist science policy practices such as performance-based research funding systems and panel-based peer review processes

Translating interdisciplinary knowledge for gender equity: Quantifying the impact of NSF ADVANCE

Background Interdisciplinarity is often hailed as a necessity for tackling real-world challenges. We examine the prevalence and impact of interdisciplinarity in the NSF ADVANCE program, which addresses gender equity in STEM. Methods Through a quantitative analysis of authorship, references, and citations in ADVANCE publications, we compare the interdisciplinarity of knowledge produced within the program to traditional disciplinary knowledge. We use Simpon's Diversity Index to test for differences across disciplines, and we use negative binomial regression to capture the potential influences of interdisciplinarity on the long-term impact of ADVANCE publications. Results ADVANCE publications exhibit higher levels of interdisciplinarity across three dimensions of knowledge integration, and cross-disciplinary ties within ADVANCE successfully integrate social science knowledge into diverse disciplines. Additionally, the interdisciplinarity of publication references positively influences the impact of ADVANCE work, while the interdisciplinarity of authorship teams does not. Conclusions These findings emphasize the significance of interdisciplinarity in problem-oriented knowledge production, indicating that specific forms of interdisciplinarity can lead to broader impact. By shedding light on the interplay between interdisciplinary approaches, disciplinary structures, and academic recognition, this article contributes to programmatic design to generate impactful problem-solving knowledge that also adds to the academic community

Role taxonomy of green and sustainable science and technology journals: exportation, importation, specialization and interdisciplinarity

Sustainability science is, per se, a topic that is inherently interdisciplinarity and oriented towards the resolution of societal problems. In this paper, we propose a classification of scientific journals that composes the journal category Green and Sustainable Science and Technology in the period 2014-2018 through the entropy-based disciplinarity indicator (EBDI). This indicator allows the classification of scientific journals in four types based on the citing and cited dimensions: knowledge importer, knowledge exporter, disciplinary and interdisciplinarity. Moreover, the relationship between this taxonomy and the JCR bibliometric indicators and its predictive capacity of the taxonomy is explored through a CHAID tree. As well, relations between the Web of Science categories, journals and taxonomy are explored by the co-occurrence of categories and correspondence analysis. Results suggest that the great majority of journals in this field are specialized or interdisciplinary. However, over the 5-year period proposed in this study, interdisciplinary journals tend to be far more stable than specialized ones. The decision tree has shown that the number of citations is the variable with the greatest discriminating capacity.Open access funding provided by University of Gävle

Mapping the structure of science through clustering in citation networks : granularity, labeling and visualization

The science system is large, and millions of research publications are published each year. Within the field of scientometrics, the features and characteristics of this system are studied using quantitative methods. Research publications constitute a rich source of information about the science system and a means to model and study science on a large scale. The classification of research publications into fields is essential to answer many questions about the features and characteristics of the science system. Comprehensive, hierarchical, and detailed classifications of large sets of research publications are not easy to obtain. A solution for this problem is to use network-based approaches to cluster research publications based on their citation relations. Clustering approaches have been applied to large sets of publications at the level of individual articles (in contrast to the journal level) for about a decade. Such approaches are addressed in this thesis. I call the resulting classifications “algorithmically constructed, publications-level classifications of research publications” (ACPLCs). The aim of the thesis is to improve interpretability and utility of ACPLCs. I focus on some issues that hitherto have not received much attention in the previous literature: (1) Conceptual framework. Such a framework is elaborated throughout the thesis. Using the social science citation theory, I argue that citations contextualize and position publications in the science system. Citations may therefore be used to identify research fields, defined as focus areas of research at various granularity levels. (2) Granularity levels corresponding to conceptual framework. In Articles I and II, a method is proposed on how to adjust the granularity of ACPLCs in order to obtain clusters corresponding to research fields at two granularity levels: topics and specialties. (3) Cluster labeling. Article III addresses labeling of clusters at different semantic levels, from broad and large to narrow and small, and compares the use of data from various bibliographic fields and different term weighting approaches. (4) Visualization. The methods resulting from Articles I-III are applied in Article IV to obtain a classification of about 19 million biomedical articles. I propose a visualization methodology that provides overview of the classification, using clusters at coarse levels, as well as the possibility to zoom into details, using clusters at a granular level. In conclusion, I have improved interpretability and utility of ACPLCs by providing a conceptual framework, adjusting granularity of clusters, labeling clusters and, finally, by visualizing an ACPLC in a way that provides both overview and detail. I have demonstrated how these methods can be applied to obtain ACPLCs that are useful to, for example, identify and explore focus areas of research

Interdisciplinarity as a political instrument of governance and its consequences for doctoral training

UK educational policies exploit interdisciplinarity as a marketing tool in a competitive educational world by building images of prosperous futures for society, the economy, and universities. Following this narrative, interdisciplinary science is promoted as superior to disciplinary forms of research and requires the training of future researchers accordingly, with interdisciplinary doctoral education becoming more established in universities. This emphasis on the growth of interdisciplinary science polarises scholars’ views on the role of academic research between the production of knowledge on the one hand and knowledge as an economic resource at the other end of the spectrum. This research asks: what is the rationale behind the perceived value of interdisciplinary research and training, and how does it affect graduate students’ experiences of their PhD? Based on a practice theory perspective for its suitability in generating insights into how university’s social life is organised, reproduced and transformed, the doctorate is conceptualised as sets of interconnected practices that are observable as they happen. This current study, therefore, comprised two stages of data collection and analysis; the examination of documents to elucidate educational policy practices and an educational ethnography of an interdisciplinary doctoral programme. This study found interdisciplinary doctoral training is hindered by the lack of role models and positive social relationships, which are crucial to the way interdisciplinary students learn. Furthermore, it is argued that interdisciplinarity is sometimes applied to research as a label to fit with funders’ requirements. Specifically, in this case, medical optical imaging is best seen as an interdiscipline as it does not exhibit true interdisciplinary integration. Further insights show that while interdisciplinarity is promoted in policy around promises and expectations for a better future, it is in tension with how it is organisationally embedded in higher education. These insights form the basis for a list of practical recommendations for institutions. Overall, interdisciplinary doctoral training was observed to present students with difficulties and to leave policy concerns unaddressed