Interdisciplinarity as a multidimensional concept:: its measure in three different research areas

Interdisciplinarity is analyzed in three different research areas: pharmacology and pharmacy, cardiovascular system and materials science, using data from a survey to Spanish scientists. The study focuses on three complementary dimensions: diversity in personal training and research specialization of scientists; research practices and behavior of the groups; and the cognitive inputs and outputs of the research activity. Interdisciplinarity emerges as a double-edged process: of jumping into a new area with people of different disciplines, in coherence with the traditional disciplinary research teams; and of specialization in a field traditionally dominated by a single group of disciplinary backgrounds, in which researchers from different areas join the teams. Thus specialization fragmentation-hybridization all come together.