Module 4: The Interdisciplinary Research Process
4.2 Justifying an Interdisciplinary Approach
In the article, “Interdisciplinary Research: Shaping the Healthcare of the Future,” the authors state, “the hospitals of the future will be shaped by scientific and technical advances made across a wide range of disciplines because complex problems in healthcare cannot be addressed successfully by a single discipline,” (Smye and Frangi, 2021).
The article goes on to state that “complex problems are not amenable to single-discipline investigation, discoveries are more likely at the boundaries between disciplines, and single disciplines derive a general benefit from engagement with those outside their field,” (Rylance as cited in Smye and Frangi, 2021).
Students will be asked to justify that their selected problem is an interdisciplinary problem. Consider these justifications provided by Repko et al., (2013).
- “The problem or research question is complex.”
- You may have found that researchers in multiple disciplines are studying this problem or parts of the problem.
- You may feel the problem needs to be studied using an interdisciplinary approach.
- “Important insights into the problem are offered by two or more disciplines.”
- These disciplines likely vary in the way they understand the problem, in their research methods, etc. For example, “research around artificial intelligence involves collaboration between cognitive psychology, computer sciences, robotics, machine learning etc.” (Interdisciplinary Perspective: Pros and Cons, Applications, Examples).
- “No single discipline has been able to address the problem comprehensively.”
- “The problem is an unresolved issue or unmet societal need.”
References
Repko, A. F., Szostak, R., & Buchberger, M. P. (2013). An interdisciplinary research ‘road map’. Introduction to interdisciplinary studies (1st ed.). SAGE Publications, Inc.
Smye, S.W., Frangi, A.F. (2021). Interdisciplinary research: shaping the healthcare of the future. Future Healthcare Journal, 8(2): 218-223. doi: 10.7861/fhj.2021-0025.
