Scientific tools and Innovation: Big Science Facilities Yield More Novel and Interdisciplinary Knowledge

TL;DR

Big Science Facilities significantly enhance scientific innovation by fostering interdisciplinary and novel research, as evidenced by extensive publication analysis across multiple disciplines since the 1950s.

Contribution

This study empirically evaluates the impact of Big Science Facilities on knowledge production, revealing their role in increasing novelty and interdisciplinarity in scientific publications.

Findings

Publications supported by BSFs show higher recombinant novelty.

BSFs promote interdisciplinary integration, especially in non-physical sciences.

Empirical evidence supports BSFs as engines of scientific discovery.

Abstract

Scientific tools dictate the boundaries of human knowledge, serving as the foundation for perceptions and explorations. In the era of Big Science, science are increasingly dependent on advanced analytical technologies and experimental platforms. Over the past decades, national and supranational entities have invested massive financial resources, collaborative networks, and collective intelligence to construct Big Science Facilities (BSFs) aimed at generating cutting edge knowledge. However, empirical evaluations of these machines actual performance in driving scientific innovation remain scarce. To address this gap, we collected 310,086 publications from 88 global BSFs and constructed a matched control dataset of approximately 3 million publications sharing the same last authors. Our analysis reveals that the utilization of BSFs has expanded significantly since 1950s. Crucially, publications supported by these facilities exhibit higher recombinant novelty and interdisciplinary integration. Furthermore, this improvement is most pronounced in non physical sciences domains traditionally peripheral to BSFs core focus indicating the emergence of a powerful intra facility knowledge spillover effect. By enriching the Facilitymetrics framework, our findings provide empirical evidence that BSFs act as vital engines for scientific discovery, offering policymakers essential metrics to justify infrastructural investments, while prompting the science of science community to reassess the profound impact of scientific tools on knowledge production