Presentation at Third Annual Postdoctoral Research Day, Université de Montréal http://fesp.umontreal.ca/fileadmin/Documents/PDF/Programme3eJRSPD.pdf

1. Stefanie Haustein
Analyzing, measuring
and visualizing the success
of interdisciplinarity

2. Interdisciplinarity
• Integration of data, methods and theories of disciplines
• Expected to derive results greater than the sum of its
disciplinary parts
• Central in science policy and research evaluation
Operationalization in bibliometrics
• Measured by co-citations
• Conflicting evidence regarding citation impact:
• lower citation impact
• higher citation impact
• no significant difference
Introduction
(e.g., Rinia, van Leeuwen & van Raan, 2002; Levitt & Thelwall, 2008; Larivière & Gingras, 2010)
(e.g., Adams, Jackson & Marshall, 2007)
(e.g., Larivière & Gingras, 2010; Uzzi et al., 2013; Yegros-Yegros, Rafols, & D’Este, 2015)

3.  Are interdisciplinary long-distance relationships worth
the effort?
• Does an interdisciplinary knowledge base increase
the citation impact of an article?
• Which combinations of subdisciplines lead to the
highest citation impact?
• How does the distance between co-cited
subdisciplines influence citation impact?
Research Questions
Larivière, V., Haustein, S., & Börner, K. (2015). Long-Distance Interdisciplinarity Leads to Higher Scientific Impact. PLoS ONE, 10(3), e0122565.

4. UCSD Map of Science
Dataset and Methods
Börner, K., Klavans, R., Patek, M., Zoss, A. M., Biberstine, J. R., Light, R. P., … Boyack, K. W. (2012). Design and Update of a Classification
System: The UCSD Map of Science. PLoS ONE, 7(7), e39464.
• 14 disciplines
• 544 subdisciplines

5. Dataset and Methods
Larivière, V., Haustein, S., & Börner, K. (2015). Long-Distance Interdisciplinarity Leads to Higher Scientific Impact. PLoS ONE, 10(3), e0122565.
11.1 million articles
2000-2012

6. Dataset and Methods
Larivière, V., Haustein, S., & Börner, K. (2015). Long-Distance Interdisciplinarity Leads to Higher Scientific Impact. PLoS ONE, 10(3), e0122565.
co-cited
Molecular
Ecology
Semiconducting
Materials
9.2 million
interdisciplinary articles
Dataset
co-cited
Molecular
Ecology
Molecular
Ecology
1.9 million
disciplinary articles

7. Dataset and Methods
Larivière, V., Haustein, S., & Börner, K. (2015). Long-Distance Interdisciplinarity Leads to Higher Scientific Impact. PLoS ONE, 10(3), e0122565.
≥30 articles
80,997 co-cited
subdiscipline pairs
distance on
the UCSD map

8. Dataset and Methods
Larivière, V., Haustein, S., & Börner, K. (2015). Long-Distance Interdisciplinarity Leads to Higher Scientific Impact. PLoS ONE, 10(3), e0122565.
5
citations
4.0
citations
7.5
citations
5.0/4.0
=1.25
5.0/7.5
=0.67
Expected citation rate in
Molecular Ecology
Expected citation rate in
Semiconducting Material
win lose
Citation impact

9. Results
Larivière, V., Haustein, S., & Börner, K. (2015). Long-Distance Interdisciplinarity Leads to Higher Scientific Impact. PLoS ONE, 10(3), e0122565.
Percentage of pairs
win win70%
win lose27%
lose lose3%
Relativecitationrate
Distance category
near far
Citation impact and distance

10. Results
2,940 (5.19%) of 56,614 win-win edges
node color: discipline │ edge color: mix of adjacent nodes │ labels: subdiscipline with highest number of win-win relationships per
discipline (number and percentage of win-win relationships)
Number of papers citing win-win relationships (≥10,000 citing articles)

11. Results
943 (0.8%) of 113,228 win-win arcs
node color: discipline │ arc color: outgoing node (clock-wise) │ labels: strongest win-win relationships per discipline
(mean relative citation rate)
Relative citation rate of win-win relationships (≥5.0 mean citations)

12. • Co-citing articles from different subdisciplines leads to
above average citation impact.
• The more diverse the knowledge base, the higher the
citation impact.
 Findings support assumption that interdisciplinary
research leads to results greater than the sum of its
disciplinary parts.
Conclusions

13. Stefanie Haustein
Merci beaucoup!
stefanie.haustein@umontreal.ca @stefhaustein crc.ebsi.umontreal.ca