Dynamics and characteristics of interdisciplinary research in scientific breakthroughs: case studies of Nobel-winning research in the past 120 years

Ren, Jingjing; Fang, Wang; Li, Minglu

doi:10.1007/s11192-023-04762-x

Cited by 3 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 62 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…For example, department affiliation of Nobel laureates is a notoriously inaccurate characterization of the substance of their work. Most Nobel laureates work at the intersection of multiple disciplinary areas, 26,27 and their employment line of reporting has no logical relevance. For example, Robert Lefkovitz, M.D., was a faculty member in the Department of Internal Medicine at Duke University.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Trajectories of biomedical research leading to Nobel Prize–winning discoveries

Burnett,

Balas,

Heboyan

et al. 2024

Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Significant advancements in public health come from scientific discoveries, but more are needed to meet the ever‐growing societal needs. Examining the best practices of outstanding scientists may help develop future researchers and lead to more discoveries. This study compared the comprehensive work of 49 Nobel laureates in Physiology or Medicine from 2000 to 2019 to a matched control of National Institutes of Health (NIH)‐funded biomedical investigators. Our unique data set, comprising 11,737 publications, 571 US patents, and 1693 NIH research awards produced by pre‐Nobel laureates, was compared to a similar data set of control researchers. Compared to control researchers, pre‐Nobel laureates produce significantly more publications annually (median = 5.66; interquartile range [IQR] = 5.16); significantly fewer coauthors per publication (median = 3.32; IQR = 1.95); consistently higher Journal Impact Factor publications (median = 12.04; IQR = 6.83); and substantially more patents per researcher (median = 5; IQR = 14). Such differences arose from nearly identical cumulative NIH award budgets of pre‐Nobel laureates (median $25.3 M) and control researchers. Nobel laureates are neither hyper‐prolific (>72 papers per year) nor hyper‐funded (>$100 M cumulative). An academic age–specific trajectory graph allows aspiring researchers to compare their productivity and collaboration patterns to those of pre‐Nobel laureates.

show abstract

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Trajectories of biomedical research leading to Nobel Prize–winning discoveries

Burnett,

Balas,

Heboyan

et al. 2024

Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…In recent years, scientific research has shown a discernible inclination toward integrating multidisciplinary knowledge (Ren et al, 2023). This trend is a direct result of the new scientific and technological revolution, which has brought about a profound change in the paradigm of scientific research.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In recent years, scientific research has shown a discernible inclination toward integrating multidisciplinary knowledge (Ren et al. , 2023).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring and evaluating the index for interdisciplinary breakthrough innovation detection

Wang,

Qiao,

Chen

et al. 2024

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Purpose This study aims to establish a reliable index to identify interdisciplinary breakthrough innovation effectively. We constructed a new index, the DDiv index, for this purpose. Design/methodology/approach The DDiv index incorporates the degree of interdisciplinarity in the breakthrough index. To validate the index, a data set combining the publication records and citations of Nobel Prize laureates was divided into experimental and control groups. The validation methods included sensitivity analysis, correlation analysis and effectiveness analysis. Findings The sensitivity analysis demonstrated the DDiv index’s ability to differentiate interdisciplinary breakthrough papers from various categories of papers. This index not only retains the strengths of the existing index in identifying breakthrough innovation but also captures interdisciplinary characteristics. The correlation analysis revealed a significant correlation (correlation coefficient = 0.555) between the interdisciplinary attributes of scientific research and the occurrence of breakthrough innovation. The effectiveness analysis showed that the DDiv index reached the highest prediction accuracy of 0.8. Furthermore, the DDiv index outperforms the traditional DI index in terms of accuracy when it comes to identifying interdisciplinary breakthrough innovation. Originality/value This study proposed a practical and effective index that combines interdisciplinary and disruptive dimensions for detecting interdisciplinary breakthrough innovation. The identification and measurement of interdisciplinary breakthrough innovation play a crucial role in facilitating the integration of multidisciplinary knowledge, thereby accelerating the scientific breakthrough process.

show abstract

Collaboration-based scientific productivity: evidence from Nobel laureates

Liu,

Lin

2024

Scientometrics

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Dynamics and characteristics of interdisciplinary research in scientific breakthroughs: case studies of Nobel-winning research in the past 120 years

Cited by 3 publications

References 62 publications

Trajectories of biomedical research leading to Nobel Prize–winning discoveries

Trajectories of biomedical research leading to Nobel Prize–winning discoveries

Exploring and evaluating the index for interdisciplinary breakthrough innovation detection

Collaboration-based scientific productivity: evidence from Nobel laureates

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About