Documenting development of interdisciplinary collaboration among researchers by visualizing connections

Linden E Higgins and Julia M Smith

Research Evaluation, 2022, vol. 31, issue 1, 159-172

Abstract: In 2015, a multidisciplinary group of academic researchers and extension personnel was awarded a US Department of Agriculture Coordinated Agricultural Project grant. The team’s goal was to understand human decision-making in the context of potential livestock disease outbreaks, investigating the impediments to increased adoption of biosecurity practices by producers from multiple perspectives. Counting publications and presentations was not deemed adequate evidence of growth of interdisciplinary collaboration. Instead, we took a developmental evaluation approach, collecting data to illuminate patterns of interconnectedness across disciplinary boundaries. These data, mapped annually on a baseline framework, reveal the team moving from disciplinary groups with disparate epistemologies and interests to a cohesive interdisciplinary team involved in many unexpected and emergent projects.

Keywords: developmental evaluation; biosecurity; animal disease prevention; interdisciplinary research (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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