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Conferenciant: I. Ràfols (Centre for Science and Technology Studies, Leiden University; The Netherlands UNESCO Chair on Diversity and Inclusion in Global Science),

Resum: As interdisciplinarity has been seen as increasingly important in science policy, there have been attempts to come up with indicators based on network analysis of bibliometric data. In this presentation, I review the operationalization of the main understandings of interdisciplinarity in terms of breadth, integration, and transformation of research over epistemic networks. I showcase the potential uses of science maps to signal interdisciplinarity, as well as the ambiguity of these operationalizations in the face of multiple choices regarding classifications, cognitive distance across categories and diversity measures (from Shannon to Tsallis entropies, from Rao-Stirling to Leinster-Cobbold diversities). In consequence, I propose that fixed indicators are problematic. Instead, interdisciplinary research is best assessed through a process of indicating over epistemic networks the particular understandings on interdisciplinarity that are seen as relevant for a specific research context or purpose.  This case illustrates the dangers in “science of science” of assuming robustness in singular operationalizations of ambiguous concepts such as novelty, disruption or quality.,

Link: http://ubics.ub.edu/talks_seminars.php.