How to measure interdisciplinary research? A systemic design for the model of measurement

Abstract

Interdisciplinarity is a polysemous concept with multiple, reasoned and intuitive, interpretations across scholars and policy-makers. Historically, quantifying the interdisciplinarity of research has been challenging due to the variety of methods used to identify metadata, taxonomies, and mathematical formulas. This has resulted in considerable uncertainty about the ability of quantitative models to provide clear insights for policy-making. This study proposes a systemic design, grounded in an advanced literature review, to demonstrate that the quantification of the interdisciplinarity of research can be treated as a process of decision-making in mathematical modelling, where alternatives choices are evaluated based on how closely their mathematical properties align with the theoretical objectives of the research design. The study addresses modeling choices regarding the stylisation of metadata into units of observation, and the operational definition of the conceptual dimensions of interdisciplinarity, presenting both established and novel methods and formulas. The final section discusses advanced topics in modelling the measurement, including a dedicated discussion on the difference in analysing the status of papers versus collective bodies of research; and distinguishing between reflective, formative, and inferential causal models of interdisciplinary research.