Abstract
Interaction among the scientific disciplines is of vital importance in modern science. Focusing on the case of Slovenia, we study the dynamics of interdisciplinary sciences from to . Our approach relies on quantifying the interdisciplinarity of research communities detected in the coauthorship network of Slovenian scientists over time. Examining the evolution of the community structure, we find that the frequency of interdisciplinary research is only proportional with the overall growth of the network. Although marginal improvements in favor of interdisciplinarity are inferable during the 70s and 80s, the overall trends during the past 20 years are constant and indicative of stalemate. We conclude that the flow of knowledge between different fields of research in Slovenia is in need of further stimulation.
Highlights
Recent research has highlighted the importance of interdisciplinarity for ground breaking discoveries [1]
We have studied the evolution of the community structure and interdisciplinarity in Slovenia’s scientific collaboration network during the past 50 years
The SICRIS database offers unique insights into the growth and evolution of a country’s research ecosystem, and we find that the one of interdisciplinarity has been in a relative recession during the time span that is subject to our analysis
Summary
Recent research has highlighted the importance of interdisciplinarity for ground breaking discoveries [1]. If during the past centuries advances in science were due to disciplinary thinking and the meticulous dissection of different fields of research on the most elementary subdisciplines, it seems the time may be ripe for the integration of the accumulated knowledge to form a new, and above all a better, understanding of the complex world that has emerged [2]. A recently identified example of a similar failure is the development of an integrated European Research Area, which was thought to be a critical component for a more competitive and open European research and development system. As [3] point out, there has been little integration above global trends in patenting and publication, leaving Europe as a collection of national innovation systems rather than an integrated research area
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