Search results
1 – 10 of over 35000Jiang Wu, Jingxuan Cai, Miao Jin and Ke Dong
Although interdisciplinary research is an increasing trend in scientific funding projects, they are suffering from a lower probability of being funded. The purpose of this paper…
Abstract
Purpose
Although interdisciplinary research is an increasing trend in scientific funding projects, they are suffering from a lower probability of being funded. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the current situation on successful case of funding application and provides suggestions on how libraries can expand services to help scientific funding application.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper utilizes the co-occurrences of disciplinary application codes to construct an interdisciplinary knowledge flow network. Based on 193517 sponsored projects of the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the authors study the interdisciplinary flow of knowledge and investigate the evolution of network structure using social network analysis.
Findings
Results show that the interdisciplinary knowledge flow network is not only a small-world network but also a scale-free network. Two main knowledge flow paths across scientific departments exist, showing the heterogeneity of knowledge distributions across scientific disciplines. The authors also find that if two disciplines in the same scientific department both have a wide influence to other disciplines, they are more prone to link together and create a knowledge chain.
Originality/value
Funding consultation currently has not occupied an advisory role either in library services or in the research team. This paper conducts a co-occurrences network analysis of interdisciplinary knowledge flow in scientific funding projects. Considering the complexity of funding application and the advantage of traditional library services on information collection, integration, and utilization, the authors conclude the possibility and necessity of embedding funding consultation in traditional library services.
Details
Keywords
Shiji Chen, Yanhui Song, Junping Qiu and Vincent Larivière
This study explores whether interdisciplinary components' citation intensity (ICCI) affects papers' scientific impact. In this study, the term “interdisciplinary components”…
Abstract
Purpose
This study explores whether interdisciplinary components' citation intensity (ICCI) affects papers' scientific impact. In this study, the term “interdisciplinary components” refers to the disciplines that are different from the discipline to which the target research belongs. The citation intensity is the degree of density or sparseness of the paper citation network for a discipline. Previous studies have shown that the scientific impact of interdisciplinary research is influenced by interdisciplinarity and its properties, namely, variety, balance and disparity. However, the effect of ICCI on scientific impact has not been comprehensively explored.
Design/methodology/approach
This study is based on the entire publication database of the Web of Science for the year 2000, where the authors provide an indicator to measure the ICCI of each publication. A tobit regression model is used to examine the effect of ICCI on scientific impact, controlling for a range of variables associated with the characteristics of the publications studied.
Findings
The results show that ICCI has a positive effect on scientific impact. The authors’ results further point out that ICCI displays a curvilinear inverted U-shape relationship with scientific impact. It means that including more citation-intensive interdisciplinary components can increase the scientific impact of interdisciplinary research. However, excessive use of citation-intensive interdisciplinary components may reduce the scientific impact of interdisciplinary research.
Originality/value
This study shows that, in addition to interdisciplinarity, the scientific impact of interdisciplinary research is also affected by the citation characteristics of interdisciplinary components, namely ICCI.
Details
Keywords
Michela Addis and Stefano Podestà
This paper aims at interpreting the epistemology of marketing. The paper investigates several research questions, proposing some initial reflections concerning their impact on…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims at interpreting the epistemology of marketing. The paper investigates several research questions, proposing some initial reflections concerning their impact on marketing.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper addresses the research questions by conducting an analysis of the marketing literature. An analysis of philosophical postmodern literature is also carried out. The paper's attempt constantly to create links between the level of philosophical elaboration and that of marketing research leads to a proposal of new approach to marketing research: experiential research.
Findings
In the paper's review of the marketing literature the traditional pragmatic approach of marketing as a discipline is highlighted. Its strong managerial perspective has partly diverted researchers’ attention from the theory, and focused it mainly on the method. This has created an increasingly marked distinction between the marketing literature aimed at management, and that aimed at the academic community. The postmodern perspective on marketing calls for a rethinking of the “scientific nature” of marketing as an investigative field.
Research limitations/implications
The main point is that marketing cannot be a scientific discipline only by adopting a scientific method. Marketing research is by definition different in nature: it cannot generate better but only different knowledge. This perspective shift has an impact on all research components. First, the field of research widens enormously, because researchers can deal with everything arousing their interest and to which their accumulated knowledge can be applied. Since the discipline does not become scientific, the researcher can use any method. All methods can originate scientific theories, and therefore incremental knowledge. Hence science is neither objective nor absolute.
Originality/value
This paper analyses the philosophical roots of postmodernism, in order to understand its impact on postmodern marketing better. It also focuses on the impact of postmodernism on marketing research, and proposes a new approach. This paper then explores the features of the experiential research in marketing, and its effect on the processes of generating knowledge.
Details
Keywords
Alexander Serenko and Nick Bontis
The purpose of this paper is two‐fold: to explore the intellectual core of the knowledge management (KM) academic discipline in order to test whether it exhibits signs of a…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is two‐fold: to explore the intellectual core of the knowledge management (KM) academic discipline in order to test whether it exhibits signs of a reference discipline; and to analyze the theoretical and practical impact of the discipline.
Design/methodology/approach
The most influential articles published in the Journal of Knowledge Management were selected and their cited and citing works were scientometrically analysed.
Findings
The KM discipline: builds its knowledge primarily upon research reports published in the English language; successfully disseminates its knowledge in both English and non‐English publications; does not exhibit a problematic self‐citation behavior; uses books and practitioner journals in the development of KM theory; converts experiential knowledge into academic knowledge; is not yet a reference discipline, but is progressing well towards becoming one; exerts a somewhat limited direct impact on practice; and is not a scientific fad.
Practical implications
KM researchers need to become aware of and use knowledge published in non‐English outlets. Given the status of KM as an applied discipline, it is critical that researchers continue utilizing non‐peer reviewed sources in their scholarly work. KM researchers should promote the dissemination of KM knowledge beyond the disciplinary boundaries. The issue whether KM should strive towards becoming a reference discipline should be debated further.
Originality/value
This study analyzes the KM field from the reference discipline perspective.
Details
Keywords
The purpose is to provide an intellectual history of Operations Management, particularly noting recent developments and its underlying continuity with earlier systems and…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose is to provide an intellectual history of Operations Management, particularly noting recent developments and its underlying continuity with earlier systems and thinking. Operations Management as a discipline identifies its “modern” incarnation as dating from the 1960s when it became more rigorous and managerially focused. This re-invention constructed a “narrative” that the profession still follows, yet a critical perspective reveals significant, though under-appreciated continuity with earlier theory and practice.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper presents a comprehensive literature review and comparative analysis of historic developments in management and academia.
Findings
In the early 1900s, F. W. Taylor’s Shop Management established Operation Management, but its main component, Scientific Management, had stagnated by the 1950s. At that point, the rise of Management Science both reinvigorated Operations Management and threatened it with a competing new discipline. To compete Operations Management then modernized by redefining itself, reasserting its interest in several areas and co-opting Operational Research tools for those. It also contracted, withdrawing from areas considered vocational, or more suited to Industrial Engineering.
Research limitations/implications
This historical overview shows the critical importance of drawing research agenda from practical managerial concerns.
Practical implications
Practitioners benefit from the intellectual rigor that academics provide and a historical perspective shows that the relationship has been mutually beneficial.
Social implications
The disciplines of Operations Management, Operations Research and Industrial Engineering are complementary and competitive in addressing many problems that transcend their boundaries, and use common ideas and techniques. The demands of “academic rigor” have had a deleterious effect on the practical managerial relevance of these disciplines.
Originality/value
A long-term, cross-disciplinary perspective provides a unique understanding of the research interests and practical orientations of these disciplines.
Details
Keywords
The study aims to investigate how and why hedges are used in nursing and education academic research articles and find out whether there are differences between the two disciplines…
Abstract
Purpose
The study aims to investigate how and why hedges are used in nursing and education academic research articles and find out whether there are differences between the two disciplines in using hedges and their subcategories.
Design/methodology/approach
The realization of hedges in 50 academic articles representing both disciplines, namely education and nursing, was scrutinized and analyzed.
Findings
The study reveals that there are significant differences between the nursing and education writers' use of hedging in the total use of hedging devices and their subcategories, in favor of the education discipline. This indicates that writers of education articles use hedges more frequently than the writers of nursing articles. In support of previous literature, it concludes that hedging devices are used as communicative strategies to qualify writers' commitment, reduce the force of the researchers' statements, express probability, save the writers' face, persuade readers, and avoid any possible rejection of their statements.
Research limitations/implications
The study was limited to 50 research articles representing both disciplines: education (non-scientific genre) and nursing (scientific genre), and certain hedging devices and their subcategories.
Practical implications
The study recommends that a clear awareness of the pragmatic effect of hedges and the ability to recognize them in texts is crucial to the acquisition of rhetorical competence in any discipline.
Originality/value
Despite the significance of hedging and the extensive research conducted on hedging, no studies have been conducted on nursing and education academic research articles to see how and why hedges are used in these two disciplines. The results can add to the existing literature that this rhetorical strategy is used differently in different disciplines and make an important contribution to the understanding of the practical reasoning and persuasion in nursing and education.
Details
Keywords
This study investigates how important the preprint arXiv is for Slovenian scientists, whether there are differences between scientific disciplines and the reputation of arXiv…
Abstract
Purpose
This study investigates how important the preprint arXiv is for Slovenian scientists, whether there are differences between scientific disciplines and the reputation of arXiv among Slovenian scientists. We are also interested in what advantages and disadvantages scientists see in using arXiv.
Design/methodology/approach
A voluntary sample of active researchers from the scientific fields covered by arXiv was used. Data were collected over 21 days in September 2021 using a 40-question online survey. In addition to descriptive statistics, nonparametric statistical methods such as Pearson's chi-squared test for independence, Kruskal-Wallis' H-test and Mann-Whitney's U-test were applied to the collected data.
Findings
Among Slovenian scientists there is a wide range of different users of arXiv. The authors note differences among scientific disciplines. Physicists and astronomers are the most engaged, followed by mathematicians. Researchers in computer science, electrical engineering and systems science seem to have recognized the benefits of the archive, but are still hesitant to use it. Researchers from the other scientific fields participated in the survey to a lesser extent, suggesting that arXiv is less popular in these scientific fields. For Slovenian scientists, the main advantages of arXiv are faster access to knowledge, open access, greater impact of scientists' work and the fact that publishing in the archive is free of charge. A negative aspect of using the archive is the frustration caused by the difficulties in assessing the credibility of articles.
Research limitations/implications
A voluntary sample was used, which attracted a larger number of researchers but has a higher risk of sampling bias.
Practical implications
The results are useful for international comparisons, but also provide bases and recommendations for institutional and national policies to evaluate researchers and their performance.
Originality/value
The results provide valuable insights into arXiv usage habits and the reasons for using or not using arXiv by Slovenian scientists. There is no comparable study conducted in Slovenia.
Details
Keywords
Philip MacKinnon, William D. Rifkin, Damian Hine and Ross Barnard
Success in research – or ‘mastery’ as we call it – can lead to interdisciplinarity arising among the increasingly fragmented disciplines of science: researchers in molecular…
Abstract
Success in research – or ‘mastery’ as we call it – can lead to interdisciplinarity arising among the increasingly fragmented disciplines of science: researchers in molecular biology can be assisted by advances in the physics of atomic imaging, when they become aware of a development's potential and feel motivated to take advantage of it. The unpredictability of advances in scientific research makes the location and nature of interdisciplinarity largely unpredictable. This unpredictability means that organisational structures in which scientific research takes place – and in which our students are trained – are likely to lag behind interdisciplinary synergies developing in the laboratory. The lag time suggested by our model explains the challenges faced by leaders of interdisciplinary programmes in higher education. One can conclude that opportunities for interdisciplinarity in science are held back by discipline-bound institutions.
Kari Kantasalmi and Juha Tuunainen
Close interaction between universities, industries, and governments has given rise to hybrid organizations incorporating economic development alongside scientific research and…
Abstract
Close interaction between universities, industries, and governments has given rise to hybrid organizations incorporating economic development alongside scientific research and higher education. We will approach this phenomenon and the related organization-theoretical problems by looking at two cases of discipline making to discuss the potential of the concept of organizational field introduced by the neoinstitutionalist school of organization theory. As this concept presumes the Bourdieusian theory of social fields, we will consider possibilities of reflective contesting of the states of doxa in discipline making in regard to organizational aspects of disciplinary boundaries in the university-centered system of higher education, its demarcation to business and schooling, as well as to the related ideology of professionalism and science policy. We will also comment on the Bourdieusian conceptuality inscribed in the neoinstitutionalist metaphor of organizational field from the perspective of systems theory inspired by Luhmann. This is because we believe that further development of the semantic focus in the problem of disciplinary boundaries would benefit from Luhmannian tools designed to grasp organizations as social systems that facilitate interrelations of differentiated function systems relevant for discipline making in current technoscience.
Details