Assessing Interdisciplinary Research

The material here necessarily overlaps somewhat with that addressed under Testing

Quite simply, interdisciplinary research projects cannot be evaluated fairly against the standards of any one discipline. As noted above, this is one major advantage of developing a shared understanding of the interdisciplinary research process within the community of interdisciplinarians.

In the absence of clear standards for interdisciplinary assessment, two dangers arise:

· No objective standards are employed, with the result that superficial interdisciplinary analysis may gain undeserved prominence.

· Disciplinary standards are imposed, with the result that only research that falsely appears interdisciplinary is favored.

We can identify questions appropriate to assessment:

Questions Arising from the Interdisciplinary Research Process

Questions Arising from Transdisciplinary Experience

We can provide practical advice for assessment:

Practical Advice for Journal Editors and Referees

Practical Advice for Assessing Grant Application

The purpose and challenges inherent in evaluating interdisciplinary research are surveyed in Katri Huutoniemi, "Evaluating interdisciplinary research," Oxford Handbook of Interdisciplinarity" (2010), 309-20. The next chapter by Britt Holbrook addresses the particular challenges associated with peer review.

A set of ten "short guides" to various research tasks, including developing or reviewing interdisciplinary research proposals, and evaluating interdisciplinary research, authored by Catherine Lyall and colleagues at the University of Edinburgh can be found at: https://www.wiki.ed.ac.uk/display/ISSTIInterdisciplinary/ID+Short+Notes+and+other+reference+materials

Julie Thompson Klein provides detailed advice on evaluating interdisciplinary research, drawn from many sources here.

This article reviews several studies of the evaluation of interdisciplinary research: McLeish T and McLeish V (2016) Evaluating interdisciplinary research: the elephant in the peer-reviewers’ room. Palgrave Communications. 2:16055 doi: 10.1057/palcomms.2016.55.

This article reviews the priorities that should guide interdisciplinary research funding decisions: Bammer G (2016) What constitutes appropriate peer review for interdisciplinary research? Palgrave Communications. 2:16017 doi: 10.1057/palcomms.2016.17.