A Comparative Study of Interdisciplinarity in Sciences in Brazil, South Korea, Turkey, and USA

TL;DR

This study compares interdisciplinary citation patterns among physics, chemistry, and molecular biology in Brazil, South Korea, Turkey, and the USA, revealing similar overall trends with some country-specific variations.

Contribution

It provides a comparative analysis of cross-science citation behaviors across four countries, highlighting consistent patterns and notable differences.

Findings

Cross-science citation rates are generally similar across countries.

Chemists are the most cross-science citing group, physicists the least.

The strongest cross-science citation is from chemistry to physics, weakest from physics to molecular biology.

Abstract

A comparative study is done of interdisciplinary citations in 2013 between physics, chemistry, and molecular biology, in Brazil, South Korea, Turkey, and USA. Several surprising conclusions emerge from our tabular and graphical analysis: The cross-science citation rates are in general strikingly similar, between Brazil, South Korea, Turkey, and USA. One apparent exception is the comparatively more tenuous relation between molecular biology and physics in Brazil and USA. Other slight exceptions are the higher amount of citing of physicists by chemists in South Korea, of chemists by molecular biologists in Turkey, and of molecular biologists by chemists in Brazil and USA. Chemists are, by a sizable margin, the most cross-science citing scientists in this group of three sciences. Physicist are, again by a sizable margin, the least cross-science citing scientists in this group of three sciences. In all four countries, the strongest cross-science citation is from chemistry to physics and the weakest cross-science citation is from physics to molecular biology. Our findings are consistent with a V-shaped backbone connectivity, as opposed to a Delta connectivity, as also found in a previous study of earlier citation years.