Updated guidelines for ISR 2024 are built into the data collection tool pages. Should you have any further questions, please contact the data collection team by email at interdisciplinary@timeshighereducation.com
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Interdisciplinary Research Data Collection 2023:
Frequently Asked Questions
Contents
A. General Definitions
B. Portal Data
C. Survey Data
D. Bibliometric Data
A. General Definitions
1. What is the definition of interdisciplinary research?
The definition that we are using is where an individual scientist or team has deep knowledge of two or more disciplines, including research practices, broad technical skills, and discipline-specific language, and then has the ability to bring together features of those disciplines to tackle a single research question. The idea is that single discipline research would typically look at a problem from within a single perspective, usually bound within the expectations and norms of that subject.
Multidisciplinary research might look at the same problem from more than one perspective, but true interdisciplinary research requires these perspectives to be integrated, either by a single researcher or a team.
We are trying to understand the extent to which universities are deliberately and explicitly creating the environments and opportunities for this kind of interdisciplinary research.
2. What is considered as interdisciplinary research?
Interdisciplinary research = This question is asking about interdisciplinary research in general fields (between all subjects).
Interdisciplinary research between science subjects = This question is asking about interdisciplinary research only among science disciplines.
For the interdisciplinary data fields that ask about research amongst science subjects, it will only be projects combining science subjects. For instance, a research project combining social sciences and computer science will not be counted, but a project combining physical sciences and computer science will be counted.
The distinction between interdisciplinary science and more general interdisciplinary research is that interdisciplinary science should only include research conducted between academic disciplines contained within the broad science subject areas.
The THE 11 subject mapping guide includes the following as science subjects: Physical Sciences, Life Sciences, Engineering and Computer Science. For example, research that includes mechanical engineering and artificial intelligence would be classified as interdisciplinary science by our definition as both of those disciplines sit within the broad science subject areas.
If the research also included history, then it would not.The subjects involved can be within one of the broad science subject areas as long as they are discrete disciplines.
3. What is covered by the interdisciplinary scientific research (only STEM or other subjects as well)?
Interdisciplinary science research (IDR-Science in the table below), as opposed to general interdisciplinary research (IDR), refers to research that is interdisciplinary where the disciplines are contained within any of the 'science' subjects at the THE 11 subject level, namely subjects that fall under Physical Sciences, Life Sciences, Engineering, and Computer Science. See examples of projects and subject combinations in the table below:
| Discipline 1 | Subject 1 | Discipline 2 | Subject level | IDR | IDR-Science |
| Astrophysics | Physical Sciences | - | - | No | No |
| Astrophysics | Physical Sciences | History | Arts and Humanities | Yes | No |
| Astrophysics | Physical Sciences | Chemistry | Physical Sciences | Yes | Yes |
| Astrophysics | Physical Sciences | Materials Science | Engineering | Yes | Yes |
4. Almost all research projects contain interdisciplinary elements. How can we distinguish interdisciplinary research from mono-disciplinary research, as we believe there are interdisciplinary traits in every project?
We are not looking for projects that may, coincidentally, contain some traces of interdisciplinary research. We are only looking for income dedicated explicitly to projects that are significantly interdisciplinary in nature and by design.
5. Do collaborations with other institutions count as interdisciplinary? Or does it have to be within the same institution?
For the Portal data we are focusing on the activities that you are undertaking to foster interdisciplinary research within your own university. However, collaborative interdisciplinary research will be recognised in our bibliometrics.
6. Can we conclude that interdisciplinary research includes any researchers or research teams/groups/centres who have come across and made use of knowledge from two or more disciplines to tackle a single research question?
We are looking at research that is explicitly interdisciplinary from the start. A research program that was only tangentially interdisciplinary - for example the research is primarily within a single domain, but a few elements are taken from another during the research process - would not count. The involvement of a second disciplinary area needs to be intentional, and significant for this to count.
B. Portal Data
1. Can universities submit interdisciplinary research data alone, without submitting data for WUR?
Universities will be required to complete the WUR overall section as well as 1 subject in order to participate in any potential interdisciplinary research ranking. However, it is possible for institutions to select 'unavailable' or 'withheld' on non-mandatory fields for WUR 'overall' section and a subject, and then complete only applicable fields within the interdisciplinary section. Nevertheless, we would encourage institutions to submit to both, as even if an institution provides interdisciplinary data it does not mean they will be included in the final interdisciplinary research ranking.
Finally, it is worth noting that the interdisciplinary research data that we are requesting, will NOT feed into the World University Rankings. More information on the interdisciplinary science project can be found at: https://www.timeshighereducation.com/world-university-rankings/its-time-start-tracking-interdisciplinary-research
2. Do you have the list of questions about interdisciplinary research that appear on the Portal?
- Research income allocated to interdisciplinary research
- Number of job adverts that explicitly mention or are relevant to interdisciplinary research
- Does your university have measures of interdisciplinary research success?
- Does your university provide specific physical facilities for interdisciplinary research teams?
- Does your university provide specific administrative support for interdisciplinary research teams?
- Does your university have a tenure promotion system in place that recognizes interdisciplinary research?
Some fields will require continuous (numerical) data, and others will ask for evidence URLs. Questions will be asked for interdisciplinary research in general, and also for interdisciplinary research amongst science disciplines. More details including data field definitions and guidance can be found in the WUR Portal Guide on pp.17-18 and pp.30-37. The guide is also available on the Portal in eleven other languages.
3. Which interdisciplinary data fields are mandatory?
If universities want to be included in the interdisciplinary research ranking then they should try to complete the interdisciplinary section of the portal submission as fully as possible.
4. Which year should data be collected from?
The data submitted should be from 2021.
5. For questions that require evidence URLs, do these links/webpages need to be in English?
No, you can submit the URL/link/webpage in any language.
6. Can we enter PDFs instead of URLs?
No PDFs allowed, only URLs (enter a string of text in the field).
7. If we have more than two ISR projects can we enter one URL per project?
The Portal is designed to only accommodate one URL per data field. We do recommend in the guidelines that "if you have several URLs, please include only the evidence you consider the most relevant."
8. Research Income queries
a. 'Research Income allocated to interdisciplinary research' - is this the same as 'Total Research income'?
'Research income allocated to interdisciplinary research' is not the same as 'Research income', it is a subset of 'Research income'. Additional definitions include:
The income your institution has received this year specifically for interdisciplinary research purposes (in the currency specifically identified by that of your institution)
This is the income only allocated to interdisciplinary research. For instance, it may be a grant funding that spans across two or more research council remit domains. There may be a lead council but it should span at least two or more research council remit domains.
b. Can you explain or provide some examples on research councils and research council remits?
The term ‘research council’ has caused some confusion. It is a UK-specific example, and is only meant as an indicator of one way that interdisciplinary research can be identified. A more general case would be where there are different funding bodies for different disciplines (however those might be named) - in that case it would be clear that a piece of research that was co-funded between funding bodies was interdisciplinary. However this may not be the only way that interdisciplinary research is funded.
There could be funding that is tied to a specific research project, or the funding could be more generally allocated to a team (so on an ongoing basis).
c. All of the interdisciplinary research at our university is assigned to a science discipline. Is it therefore OK that the general income for interdisciplinary research is the same as the income amongst science disciplines? The same goes for each question distinguishing general interdisciplinary research and amongst science disciplines.
If all of the interdisciplinary research at your university is assigned to a science discipline, you can enter the same number for the "general" and "science discipline" interdisciplinary research income fields (as science discipline data is a "subset" of the general data.)
The "general" number should be equal or greater than the "science discipline" number.
Also for the questions that ask you to enter a URL, you can enter the same URL (if there's only one) for "general" and "science discipline" fields.
d. Can we include the research income received from collaborative interdisciplinary projects that were undertaken in other institutions?
No, we are focusing on the activities that you are undertaking to foster interdisciplinary research within your own university. So please do not include research income from collaborative projects with other institutions.
e. When entering WUR data, can we decide/choose which subject category to include interdisciplinary income in (as they are cross-over subject research) as long as we don't duplicate the data?
Since this is by definition interdisciplinary research it's likely to span many subjects. As such, you can split the income received across the relevant subjects or choose to include in one subject that is most appropriate for the research.
f. Can the income data we submit for the interdisciplinary research income fields duplicate the income data which we submit for each WUR subject category?
Interdisciplinary research income is a subset of research income overall, and part of the interdisciplinary research income can be a part of research income in the subject category. Please check the definition of "Interdisciplinary research income" in the WUR Portal Guide pp.30-37.
9. Job Adverts Queries
a. We don't explicitly require interdisciplinary relevance; however, the research staff's milestones and published work may be considered interdisciplinary research. So is it the total number of research job postings?
The goal here is to understand how many of your job postings explicitly look for people to fill roles that are interdisciplinary.
b. Does "posted this year" mean the year 2021? (same as all other fields?)
Yes, this is for the reference year (in most cases the year ending in 2021.)
c. Can we count multiple times for one project advert if we posted it multiple times in one year?
No, if the exact same advert was posted multiple times then it should only count as one.
10. Administrative Support Queries
a. Can you define administrative support in more detail? What kind of other support are you expecting? (Other than project manager supporting?)
We have heard from academics that interdisciplinary research can often mean interacting with multiple departments and therefore increased administration overheads. We are trying to determine if universities are able to provide additional support to account for this. This could also include support in grant applications, access to appropriate facilities - we are trying to be open about this.
11. Measures of Success Queries
a. Can you define ‘measures of success’ in the context of interdisciplinary research? The University values all of THE's metrics, and nearly all of them have been discussed in the evaluation of a research project to provide a scope for whether it is successful.
Here we are looking to see if universities have their own measures of success that directly explore interdisciplinary success. These could be (for example) around successful project funding bids that involve interdisciplinary teams.
12. Physical Facilities Queries
a. ‘Does your university provide specific physical facilities for interdisciplinary research teams?’ - What kind of information or data or evidence is THE expecting for this question? Any other research facilities or do we need to provide a list of equipment as evidence?
Facilities could be on or off campus. Facilities don't have to be on their main campus, as long as they are used by the university (for example they may rent laboratory space elsewhere). Evidence could be a website describing the facilities, for example.
13. Promotion System Queries
a. "Promotion system specifically dedicated to reward interdisciplinary research", does it mean that candidates can get benefits when they have participated in interdisciplinary research?
Yes, benefits in a way, but basically here we're trying to see if there are incentives in the workplace that reward interdisciplinary research. Another comment we have had back from academics – and this is especially common in tenure track countries such as the USA – is that the need to chase tenure typically pushes academics into single discipline research. We are looking to see how many universities take active steps to avoid this in their promotion and tenure decisions.
C. Survey Data
1. What format does the survey take?
The survey targets experienced, published scholars who offer their views on excellence in interdisciplinary research. We ask researchers’ view in their own research and their opinion on their institutions' interdisciplinary research. We kindly request you to distribute this survey across your staff who would be relevant to interdisciplinary research. The survey typically should not take more than 10 minutes to complete and is available in twelve languages.
2. Can academics fill in multiple surveys?
No, each academic is expected to fill in the survey only once.
3. Can the survey be forwarded to my colleagues?
Yes, the survey can be forwarded to colleagues.
4. When does the survey take place?
We had another Interdisciplinary Research survey running between January and March that was sent to specific academics. The current survey is open and will run until 19 May. Kindly request your staff to participate in this survey, unless they have already completed the first survey.
5. What is required from universities?
We would greatly appreciate your support in distributing the survey across your university research staff.
6. What about GDPR?
We have worked with our Data Protection Officer to ensure that all personal data is compliant with GDPR. We have conducted a Data Privacy Impact Assessment, and our legal basis for processing is based upon Legitimate Interest; we have successfully conducted a Legitimate Interest Assessment (LIA). Our privacy notice includes information to reflect this.