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