Prominent but Less Productive，The Impact of Interdisciplinarity on Scientists’ Research.pdfVIP

Administrative Science Quarterly 2017, Vol. 62(1)105–139 Prominent but Less The Author(s) 2016 Reprints and permissions: Productive: The Impact / journalsPermissions.nav of Interdisciplinarity DOI: 10.1177/0001839216665364 /home/asq on Scientists’ * Research Erin Leahey,1 Christine M. Beckman,2 and Taryn L. Stanko3 Abstract Federal agencies and universities in the U.S. promote interdisciplinary research because it presumably spurs transformative, innovative science. Using data on almost 900 research-center–based scientists and their 32,000 published arti- cles, along with a set of unpublished papers, we assess whether such research is indeed beneficial and whether costs accompany the potential benefits. Existing research highlights this tension: whereas the innovation literature sug- gests that spanning disciplines is beneficial because it allows scientists to see connections across fields, the categories literature suggests that spanning dis- ciplines is penalized because the resulting research may be lower quality or confusing to place. To investigate this, we empirically distinguish production and reception effects and highlight a new production penalty: lower productiv- ity, which may be attributable to cognitive and collaborative challenges associ- ated with interdisciplinary research and/or hurdles in the review process. Using an innovative measure of interdisciplinary research that considers the similarity of the disciplines spanned, we document both pen