New concept of the affinity between research fields using academic journal data in Scopus

Ryo Takahashi (), Kenji Kaibe, Kazuyuki Suzuki, Sayaka Takahashi, Kotaro Takeda, Marc Hansen and Michiaki Yumoto
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Ryo Takahashi: Tohoku University
Kenji Kaibe: Tohoku University
Kazuyuki Suzuki: Tohoku University
Sayaka Takahashi: Tohoku University
Kotaro Takeda: Tohoku University
Marc Hansen: Tohoku University
Michiaki Yumoto: Tohoku University

Scientometrics, 2023, vol. 128, issue 6, No 13, 3507-3534

Abstract: Abstract We propose a new concept for measuring the affinity between fields of academic research. The importance of interdisciplinary research has been increasingly emphasized in recent years. The degree of interdisciplinarity of a research article can be determined using bibliographic information from the cited literature. However, the properties of the affinity of each field to other fields have not yet been discussed. Therefore, we employ our method to quantify the affinity between 27 research fields using academic journal data from the citation and abstract database Scopus. We show that the affinity between fields should be viewed from two perspectives: the affinity of other fields to the field of interest, and the affinity of the field of interest to other fields. We identify the fields of “Arts and Humanities” and “Social Sciences”, and “Earth and Planetary Sciences” and “Environmental Sciences”, as those with the highest bidirectional affinity. We also demonstrate that affinity to “Medicine” is particularly high, with seven fields of interest having the highest affinity to this field: “Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology”, “Immunology and Microbiology”, “Neuroscience”, “Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutics”, “Nursing”, “Dentistry”, and “Health Professions”.

Keywords: Interdisciplinary research; Affinity between fields; ASJC; Co-assigned field (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:scient:v:128:y:2023:i:6:d:10.1007_s11192-023-04711-8

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DOI: 10.1007/s11192-023-04711-8

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