Research interdisciplinarity: STEM versus non-STEM
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Research interdisciplinarity: STEM versus non‑STEM Shahadat Uddin1 · Tasadduq Imam2 · Mohammad Mozumdar3 Received: 30 June 2020 © Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest, Hungary 2020
Abstract Research collaboration among interdisciplinary teams has become a common trend in recent days. However, there is a lack of evidence in literature regarding which disciplines play dominant roles in interdisciplinary research settings. It is also unclear whether the dominant role of disciplines vary between STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) and non-STEM focused research. This study considers metadata of the research projects funded by the Australian Research Council Discovery Grant Project scheme. Applying network analytics, this study investigates the contribution of individual disciplines in the successfully funded projects. It is noted that the disciplines Engineering, Biological Sciences and Technology appear as the principal disciplines in interdisciplinary research having a STEM focus. By contrast, non-STEM interdisciplinary research is led by three disciplines—Studies in Human Societies, Language, Communication and Culture, and History and Archaeology. For projects entailing interdisciplinarity between STEM and non-STEM disciplines, the STEM discipline of Medical and Health Sciences and the non-STEM disciplines of Psychology and Cognitive Science and Studies in Human Societies appear as the leading contributors. Overall, the network-based visualisation reveals that research interdisciplinarity is implemented in a heterogeneous way across STEM and non-STEM disciplines, and there are gaps in inter-disciplinary collaborations among some disciplines. Keywords Interdisciplinary research · STEM and non-STEM
* Shahadat Uddin [email protected] Tasadduq Imam [email protected] Mohammad Mozumdar [email protected] 1
School of Project Management, Faculty of Engineering, The University of Sydney, Level 2, 21 Ross Street, Forest Lodge, NSW 2037, Australia
2
School of Business and Law, CQUniversity (Melbourne Campus), L4, 120 Spencer Street, Melbourne, VIC 3000, Australia
3
Electrical Engineering, California State University, 1250 Bellflower Blvd., ECS‑521, MS‑8306, Long Beach, CA 90840‑8306, USA
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Vol.:(0123456789)
Scientometrics
Introduction Interdisciplinary research has become increasingly common in recent days. This type of research is very important in addressing many real-life problems where a joint effort from experts working in multiple research domains is required. The National Science Foundation of the USA define interdisciplinary research as a mode of research, conducted by teams or individuals, by integrating different methodological perspectives (e.g., information, data, techniques and tools), concepts and/or theories from two or more disciplines to solve problems (National Science Foundation 2020). A similar view is posed by the Australian Research Council (ARC), which notes interdisciplinary research as those involving investigators across disciplines for solving a probl
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