Navigating interdisciplinary research:Historical progression and contemporary challenges

Interdisciplinary research plays a crucial role in addressing complex problems by integrating knowledge from multiple disciplines.This integration fosters innovative solutions and enhances understanding across various fields.This study explores the historical and sociological development of interdisciplinary research and maps its evolution through three distinct phases:pre-disciplinary,disciplinary,and post-disciplinary.It identifies key internal dynamics,such as disciplinary diversification,reorganization,and innovation,as primary drivers of this evolution.Additionally,this study highlights how external factors,particularly the urgency of World War II and the subsequent political and economic changes,have accelerated its advancement.The rise of interdisciplinary research has significantly reshaped traditional educational paradigms,promoting its integration across different educational levels.However,the inherent contradictions within interdisciplinary research present cognitive,emotional,and institutional challenges for researchers.Meanwhile,finding a balance between the breadth and depth of knowledge remains a critical challenge in interdisciplinary education.

Recent Ventures in Interdisciplinary Arctic Research:The ARCPATH Project

This paper celebrates Professor Yongqi GAO's significant achievement in the field of interdisciplinary studies within the context of his final research project Arctic Climate Predictions: Pathways to Resilient Sustainable Societies-ARCPATH(https://www.svs.is/en/projects/finished-projects/arcpath). The disciplines represented in the project are related to climatology, anthropology, marine biology, economics, and the broad spectrum of social-ecological studies. Team members were drawn from the Nordic countries, Russia, China, the United States, and Canada. The project was transdisciplinary as well as interdisciplinary as it included collaboration with local knowledge holders. ARCPATH made significant contributions to Arctic research through an improved understanding of the mechanisms that drive climate variability in the Arctic. In tandem with this research, a combination of historical investigations and social, economic, and marine biological fieldwork was carried out for the project study areas of Iceland, Greenland, Norway, and the surrounding seas, with a focus on the joint use of ocean and sea-ice data as well as social-ecological drivers. ARCPATH was able to provide an improved framework for predicting the near-term variation of Arctic climate on spatial scales relevant to society, as well as evaluating possible related changes in socioeconomic realms. In summary, through the integration of information from several different disciplines and research approaches, ARCPATH served to create new and valuable knowledge on crucial issues, thus providing new pathways to action for Arctic communities.

Do civil engineering fronts emerge from interdisciplinary research?

Interdisciplinary research is considered a source of innovativeness and creativity, serving as a key mechanism for creating recombination necessary for the evolution of science systems. The aim of this study is to quantitatively establish the connection between interdisciplinary research and the research fronts that have recently emerged in civil engineering. The degree of interdisciplinarity of the research fronts was measured by developing metrics from bibliographic analyses. As indicated by the consistent increase in the metrics of interdisciplinarity over time, research fronts tend to emerge in studies with increasing diversity in the disciplines involved. The active disciplines involved in the fronts vary over time. The most active disciplines are no longer fundamental but those associated with energy, environment, and sustainable development, focusing on solutions to climate change and integrating intelligence technologies.

Characterizing structure of cross-disciplinary impact of global disciplines:A perspective of the Hierarchy of Science

Purpose:Interdisciplinary fields have become the driving force of modern science and a significant source of scientific innovation.However,there is still a paucity of analysis about the essential characteristics of disciplines’cross-disciplinary impact.Design/methodology/approach:In this study,we define cross-disciplinary impact on one discipline as its impact to other disciplines,and refer to a three-dimensional framework of variety-balance-disparity to characterize the structure of cross-disciplinary impact.The variety of cross-disciplinary impact of the discipline was defined as the proportion of the high cross-disciplinary impact publications,and the balance and disparity of cross-disciplinary impact were measured as well.To demonstrate the cross-disciplinary impact of the disciplines in science,we chose Microsoft Academic Graph(MAG)as the data source,and investigated the relationship between disciplines’cross-disciplinary impact and their positions in the Hierarchy of Science(HOS).Findings:Analytical results show that there is a significant correlation between the ranking of cross-disciplinary impact and the HOS structure,and that the discipline exerts a greater cross-disciplinary impact on its neighboring disciplines.Several bibliometric features that measure the hardness of a discipline,including the number of references,the number of cited disciplines,the citation distribution,and the Price index have a significant positive effect on the variety of cross-disciplinary impact.The number of references,the number of cited disciplines,and the citation distribution have significant positive and negative effects on balance and disparity,respectively.It is concluded that the less hard the discipline,the greater the cross-disciplinary impact,the higher balance and the lower disparity of cross-disciplinary impact.Research limitations:In the empirical analysis of HOS,we only included five broad disciplines.This study also has some biases caused by the data source and applied regression models.Practical implications:This study contributes to the formulation of discipline-specific policies and promotes the growth of interdisciplinary research,as well as offering fresh insights for predicting the cross-disciplinary impact of disciplines.Originality/value:This study provides a new perspective to properly understand the mechanisms of cross-disciplinary impact and disciplinary integration.

Orthopedic revolution:The emerging role of nanotechnology

This review summarizes the latest progress in orthopedic nanotechnology,ex-plores innovative applications of nanofibers in tendon repair,and evaluates the potential of selenium and cerium oxide nanoparticles in osteoarthritis and osteo-blast differentiation.This review also describes the emerging applications of inje-ctable hydrogels in cartilage engineering,emphasizing the critical role of inter-disciplinary research and highlighting the challenges and future prospects of in-tegrating nanotechnology into orthopedic clinical practice.This comprehensive approach provides a holistic perspective on the transformative impact of nanote-chnology in orthopedics,offering valuable insights for future research and clinical applications.

Opportunities and Challenges of College Mental Health Education from the Perspective of Big Data

This paper explores the opportunities and challenges of college mental health education from the perspective of big data.Firstly,through literature review,the importance of mental health education and the current issues are elucidated.Then,from the perspective of big data,the potential opportunities of big data in college mental health education are analyzed,including data-driven personalized education,real-time monitoring and warning systems,and interdisciplinary research and collaboration.At the same time,the challenges faced by college mental health education under the perspective of big data are also pointed out,such as data privacy and security issues,insufficient data analysis and interpretation capabilities,and inadequate technical facilities and talent support.Lastly,the research content of this paper is summarized,and directions and suggestions for future research are proposed.

Geographers and sustainability:Five research challenges

Advances in scholarly research are routinely associated with specific fields and traditional disciplines.New fields such as sustainability,climate change,gender studies and“green knowledge”emerge with inter-and cross-disciplinary subject matter,methods and techniques.Sustainability has emerged as an integrative research field on a global scale not only with contributions from the social and natural sciences in the past two decades but with contributions from the humanities and sciences.These breakthroughs present challenges to traditional fields and opportunities for better understanding of processes and impacts.The challenges facing geography include working with both visible and invisible worlds,going beyond“comfort zone”research boundaries,recognizing the importance of maps and mapping,and integrating politics in sustainability worlds at local,regional and global scales.

Translation Studies in/and International Business Studies:Mapping the Main Research Topics

Over the past two decades,the convergences of translation studies and international business studies have attracted a growing amount of attention from stakeholders in the respective research field.This is particularly because professionals and scholars in international business and management realize the importance of the role of language and translation in international trade and multilingual communication.The research results in this interdisciplinary field could provide basis for making critical decisions,such as the staff recruitment,company language policy and company development strategy.However,few reviews have been available that provide a comprehensive overview of relevant practice and research in this cross-disciplinary efforts.The present article therefore aims to offer a state-of-the-art review and investigate the existing literature to map the main research topics and discover future agenda.This article first provides an overview of the perception of“translation”,the role of translator,and translational activities in international business studies.Second,the review focuses on the translation and knowledge transfer in multinational corporations.Lastly,it identifies future directions towards the cross-fertility of the interdisciplinary collaboration.

An Eco-translatological Perspective to Researching Publicity Texts Translation

The importance of an interdisciplinary investigation into the translation of publicity texts cannot be overestimated at a time when the role of international communication grows rapidly,which in turn pushes the development of globalization.Ecotranslatology takes the concept of"adaptation/selection"of Darwin’s Evolution Theory as its theoretical foundation,focusing on the integrity of the translation ecosystem,making a novel description and interpretation to the nature,process,standard,principles,methods of translation and translation phenomena from the perspective of Eco-translatology.Though the construct of the theory keeps expanding,there is still a lack of systematic discussion on translation activities with focus on the integrity and harmony in Eco-translatology.This study therefore aims to promote the need of researching publicity text translation from an Ecotranslatological perspective through the review of the existing literature in this field.

Social Network Analysis of COVID-19 Research and the Changing International Collaboration Structure

Research in Information Science and interdisciplinary areas suggested the formation of a growing network of international research collaboration.The massive transmission of COVID-19 worldwide especially after the identification of the Omicron variant could fundamentally alter the factors shaping the network's development.This study employs network analysis methods to analyze the structure of the COVID-19 research collaboration from 2020 to 2022,using two major academic publication databases and the VOSviewer software.A novel temporal view is added by examining the dynamic changes of the network,and a fractional counting method is adopted as methodological improvements to previous research.Analysis reveals that the COVID-19 research network structure has undergone substantial changes over time,as collaborating countries and regions form and re-form new clusters.Transformations in the network can be partly explained by key developments in the pandemic and other social-political events.China as one of the largest pivots in the network formed a relatively distinct cluster,with potential to develop a larger Asia-Pacific collaboration cluster based on its research impact.

Research on the Strategy for the Balanced Allocation of Educational Resources between Urban and Rural Areas in China

This study conducts an in-depth analysis of the current state,influencing factors,and strategies for the distribution of educational resources between urban and rural areas in China.It aims to provide an empirical foundation and specific recommendations for policymakers and educational practitioners.The research reveals significant disparities in teacher allocation,teaching facilities,and educational funding between urban and rural regions,which adversely impact the quality and equity of education.Despite national policies promoting educational equity,discrepancies in local implementation hinder the effectiveness of these policies.The study underscores the profound influence of education on social development,noting that educational gaps can restrict individual social mobility and affect overall societal progress and economic growth.Policy recommendations include increasing investment in rural education,establishing dynamic resource allocation mechanisms,enhancing rural teacher remuneration and social status,and promoting the application of educational technology.The study acknowledges limitations in sample selection and data collection,suggesting future research directions such as the impact of educational policies on specific groups and the psychosocial effects of educational inequality.Interdisciplinary research and systematic policy evaluation and feedback mechanisms are encouraged to ensure policies adapt to new educational demands.

Visualization of Disciplinary Profiles: Enhanced Science Overlay Maps

Purpose： The purpose of this study is to modernize previous work on science overlay maps by updating the underlying citation matrix, generating new clusters of scientific disciplines, enhancing visualizations, and providing more accessible means for analysts to generate their own maps Design/methodology/approach： We use the combined set of 2015 Journal Citation Reports for the Science Citation Index （n of journals = 8,778） and the Social Sciences Citation Index （n = 3,212） for a total of 11,365 journals. The set of Web of Science Categories in the Science Citation Index and the Social Sciences Citation Index increased from 224 in 2010 to 227 in 2015. Using dedicated software, a matrix of 227 × 227 cells is generated on the basis of whole-number citation counting. We normalize this matrix using the cosine function. We first develop the citing-side, cosine-normalized map using 2015 data and VOSviewer visualization with default parameter values. A routine for making overlays on the basis of the map （＂wc 15.exe＂） is available at http：//www.leydesdorff.net/wc 15/index.htm. Findings： Findings appear in the form of visuals throughout the manuscript. In Figures 1 9 we provide basemaps of science and science overlay maps for a number of companies, universities, and technologies. Research limitations： As Web of Science Categories change and/or are updated so is the need to update the routine we provide. Also, to apply the routine we provide users need access to the Web of Science. Practical implications： Visualization of science overlay maps is now more accurate and true to the 2015 Journal Citation Reports than was the case with the previous version of the routine advanced in our paper.Originality/value： The routine we advance allows users to visualize science overlay maps in VOSviewer using data from more recent Journal Citation Reports.

Content Characteristics of Knowledge Integration in the eHealth Field:An Analysis Based on Citation Contexts

Purpose:This study attempts to disclose the characteristics of knowledge integration in an interdisciplinary field by looking into the content aspect of knowledge.Design/methodology/approach:The eHealth field was chosen in the case study.Associated knowledge phrases(AKPs)that are shared between citing papers and their references were extracted from the citation contexts of the eHealth papers by applying a stem-matching method.A classification schema that considers the functions of knowledge in the domain was proposed to categorize the identified AKPs.The source disciplines of each knowledge type were analyzed.Quantitative indicators and a co-occurrence analysis were applied to disclose the integration patterns of different knowledge types.Findings:The annotated AKPs evidence the major disciplines supplying each type of knowledge.Different knowledge types have remarkably different integration patterns in terms of knowledge amount,the breadth of source disciplines,and the integration time lag.We also find several frequent co-occurrence patterns of different knowledge types.Research limitations:The collected articles of the field are limited to the two leading open access journals.The stem-matching method to extract AKPs could not identify those phrases with the same meaning but expressed in words with different stems.The type of Research Subject dominates the recognized AKPs,which calls on an improvement of the classification schema for better knowledge integration analysis on knowledge units.Practical implications:The methodology proposed in this paper sheds new light on knowledge integration characteristics of an interdisciplinary field from the content perspective.The findings have practical implications on the future development of research strategies in eHealth and the policies about interdisciplinary research.Originality/value:This study proposed a new methodology to explore the content characteristics of knowledge integration in an interdisciplinary field.

Integrated Futures for Europe’s Mountain Regions: Reconciling Biodiversity Conservation and Human Livelihoods

Europe＇s mountains cover nearly half of the continent＇s area and are home to one fifth of the European population. Mountain areas are hotspots of biodiversity and agriculture has played a multifunctional role in defining and sustaining mountain biodiversity. Ongoing trends of agricultural decline are having negative impacts on mountain biodiversity. This paper presents results from an interdisciplinary European research project, BioScene, which investigated the relationship between agriculture and biodiversity in six mountain study areas across Europe to provide recommendations for reconciling biodiversity conservation with social and economic activities through an integrated rural development strategy. BioScene used scenario analysis and stakeholder participation as tools for structuring the analysis of alternative mountain futures. Three main BioScene scenarios were evaluated： Business as Usual （BAIT）, Agricultural Liberalisation （Lib）, Managed Change for Biodiversity （MCB）. BioScene brought together ecologists, economists, sociologists and rural geogra- phers, to carry out interdisciplinary analysis of the scenarios： identifying key drivers of change, assessing the biodiversity consequences and evaluating costeffectiveness. BioScene used a sustainability assessment to integrate the research outputs across natural and social science disciplines to assess the broader sustainability of the scenarios in terms of biodiversity, natural resources, rural development, social development, economic development and institutional capacity. The sustainability assessment showed that the MCB scenario was potentially the most sustainable of the three BioScene scenarios. Through the reconciliation of potentially conflicting objectives, such as conservation, economic development and human livelihoods, and with a strong participatory planning approach, the MCB scenario could represent an alternative approach to BaU for sustainable rural development in Europe＇s mountains. BioScene confirms the necessity for natural and social scientists to work together to seek solutions to environmental problems. Interdisciplinary research can assist with the definition of integrated strategies with the potential to reconcile the ecological, social and economic parameters that determine a sustainable future for European mountain areas.

Moving toward a new era of ecosystem science

Ecosystem is a fundamental organizational unit of the biosphere in which biological communities interact with their non-biological environment through energy flows and material cycles.Ecosystem science is the study of patterns,processes,and services of ecosystems.Since the 1990s,rising concerns regarding global climate change,biodiversity loss,ecosystem degradation,and sustainability of the human-dominated biosphere have stimulated the growth of ecosystem science,which is expected to provide systematic solutions to many of these major issues facing human societies.This paper provides a comprehensive review of the current progress in ecosystem science and identifies some key research challenges facing this discipline.We demonstrate that a key feature of the current progress in ecosystem science is its evolution from primarily theoretical explorations toward more systematic,integrative and application-oriented studies.Specifically,five major changes in the discipline over the past several decades can be identified.These include:(1)the expansion of the primary goal from understanding nature to include human activities;(2)the broadening of the research focus from single ecosystem types to macro-ecosystems comprising multiple regional ecosystems;(3)the shifting of research methods from small-scale observations and experiments to large-scale observations,network experiments,and model simulations;(4)the increasing attention to comprehensive integration of ecosystem components,processes,and scales;and(5)the shifting from a primarily biology-oriented focus to an integrated multi-disciplinary scientific field.While ecosystem science still faces many challenges in the future,these directional changes,along with the rapidly enriched research tools and data acquisition capabilities,lay a promising ground for the discipline’s future as a fundamental scientific basis for solving many environmental challenges facing human societies.

F4ESS-a framework for interdisciplinary data-driven earth system science

Earth system science is an interdisciplinary effort to understand the fundamentals and interactions of environmental processes.Interdisciplinary research is challenging since it demands the integration of scientific schemes and practices from different research fields into a collaborative work environment.This paper introduces the framework F4ESS that supports this integration.F4ESS provides methods and technologies that facilitate the development of integrative work environments for Earth system science.F4ESS enables scientists a)to outline structured and summarized descriptions of scientific procedures to facilitate communication and synthesis,b)to combine a large variety of distributed data analysis software into seamless data analysis chains and workflows,c)to visually combine and interactively explore the manifold spatiotemporal data and results to support understanding and knowledge creation.The F4ESS methods and technologies are generic and can be applied in various scientific fields.We discuss F4EsS in the context of the interdisciplinary investigation of flood events.

Advances in Low-Level Jet Research and Future Prospects

The low-level jet （LLJ） is closely related to severe rainfall events, air pollution, wind energy utilization, aviation safety, sandstorms, forest fire, and other weather and climate phenomena. Therefore, it has attracted considerable attention since its discovery. Scientists have carried out many studies on LLJs and made significant achievements during the past five or six decades. This article summarizes and assesses the current knowledge on this subject, and focuses in particular on three aspects： 1） LLJ classification, definition, distribution, and structure; 2） LLJ formation and evolutionary mechanisms; and 3） relationships between LLJ and rainfall, as well as other interdisciplinary fields. After comparing the status of LLJ research at home （China） and abroad, we then discuss the shortcomings of LLJ research in China. We suggest that this includes： coarse definitions of the LLJ, lack of observations and inadequate quality control, few thorough explorations of LLJ characteristics and formation mechanisms, and limited studies in interdisciplinary fields. The future prospects for several LLJ research avenues are also speculated.

Identification of potential interdisciplinary cooperative topics based on co-word network:Taking LIS and computer science as an example

[Purpose/significance]Interdisciplinary knowledge fusion plays a key role in promoting the development of interdisciplinary integration and providing new ideas for interdisciplinary cooperative research.This study sets out to identify potential interdisciplinary cooperative topics between Library and Information Science(LIS)and Computer Science.[Method/Process]We built an interdisciplinary co-word network to identify potential interdisciplinary cooperative topics by closed and opened irrelevant knowledge discovery methods.We also constructed the topic interdisciplinary cooperation potential index(TICPI)to calculate the interdisciplinary cooperation potential of the topic and found the best contact path of the cooperation topic by constructing the practicable value(PV)of the contact patch.[Result/Conclusion]The experimental data suggested that both methods can identify the same potential interdisciplinary cooperative topics,such as knowledge service&matrix decomposition,online comments&social media processing,academic text&generative adversarial network,network public opinion&smart home.Exploiting the cooperation potential of these topics can help the knowledge fusion between disciplines.

New progress in understanding the origins of modern humans in China

Hypotheses concerning the origins of modern humans have been intensively debated, and two competing models, the recent "Out-of-Africa" and "Multiregional Evolution" paradigms, have dominated research and discussions for decades. Evidence from China has played a fundamental role in this debate: regional continuity and replacement by populations in-migrated from Africa have both been suggested and supported mainly by paleoanthropologists and geneticists, respectively. As more evidence has accumulated, new results obtained, and more scholars from various disciplines become involved, supporters of the recent "Out-of-Africa" model agree more or less with the "Multiregional Evolution" model regarding the complex history of modern humans and their interbreeding with other archaic populations(e.g., Neandertals). Recent discoveries of new human fossils, Paleolithic archaeological materials, and ancient DNA evidence in China have yielded a large body of information regarding the formation and development of modern humans in this region. However, controversies continue, including that most molecular biologists insist on the replacement of archaic populations by modern humans dispersed from Africa, while most paleoanthropologists and archaeologists propose an enhanced "Continuity with Hybridization" model. In this paper, we compile new results and progress in China and present the current debates and issues on the origins of modern humans. Finally, we offer several suggestions for future studies.

“What is a Sociologist Doing Here?”An Unconventional People-Centered Approach to Improve Warning Implementation in the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction

The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030 recommends several actions for early warning systems(EWSs). However, there is a lack of information about their means of implementation. This article used institutional ethnography to analyze the 2012–2018 implementation of a national warning system in Brazil. The challenges related to daily activities, and the interdisciplinary works in the four axes of EWSs towards multi-hazard and people-centered approaches are discussed. This national experience is then discussed in the light of the global challenges of EWSs considering two main issues:(1) experiences of implementation and barriers related to people-centered warning systems;and(2)types of national/regional warning systems and hazards/threats that are being monitored as an important input for multi-hazard approaches. There are few multi-hazard warning systems in place and EWSs are focused on hydrometeorological hazards, mainly related to floods. The Sendai Framework needs to improve access to data and information, identify views from the frontline, consider political threats and vulnerabilities, and find ways to talk about disaster risk creation processes at a larger scale.