Interaction among the scientific disciplines is of vital importance in modern
science. Focusing on the case of Slovenia, we study the dynamics of
interdisciplinary sciences from 1960 to 2010. Our approach relies on
quantifying the interdisciplinarity of research communities detected in the
coauthorship network of Slovenian scientists over time. Examining the evolution
of the community structure, we find that the frequency of interdisciplinary
research is only proportional with the overall growth of the network. Although
marginal improvements in favor of interdisciplinarity are inferable during the
70s and 80s, the overall trends during the past 20 years are constant and
indicative of stalemate. We conclude that the flow of knowledge between
different fields of research in Slovenia is in need of further stimulation.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figures; accepted for publication in PLoS ONE [related
work available at http://arxiv.org/abs/1004.4824 and
http://www.matjazperc.com/sicris/stats.html
