Appreciating, Measuring and Incentivising Discipline Diversity: Meaningful Indicators of Collaboration in Research

  • Helen Hasan University of Wollongong
  • Linda Dawson University of Woolongong
Keywords: Collaboration, diversity, research performance, indicators, inter-disciplinary

Abstract

Inter-disciplinary collaborative research is generally believed to lead to innovative outcomes in areas that may be missed in research studies based in a single discipline. However, currently available research performance indicators, based on scholarly peer-reviewed publications and citations from a single discipline, do little to recognise the merits of collaborative and inter-disciplinary research. This paper presents an empirical study of members of a research unit and their publication and grant profiles. From analysis of this data a set of profile categories emerged together with the relevant indicators which provide a framework from which a deeper understanding of how different research behaviours contribute to the differences in researchers’ individual profiles. These profiles could be used to provide a richer environment for the evaluation of research performance, both in terms of outputs and potential funding opportunities, and indicators of ‘good research’ in inter-disciplinary projects.

Author Biographies

Helen Hasan, University of Wollongong
Associate Professor in Information Systems, Australian Health Services Research Institute University of Wollongong
Linda Dawson, University of Woolongong
Associate Dean Research Faculty of Social Science
Published
2015-11-22
How to Cite
Hasan, H., & Dawson, L. (2015). Appreciating, Measuring and Incentivising Discipline Diversity: Meaningful Indicators of Collaboration in Research. Australasian Journal of Information Systems, 19. https://doi.org/10.3127/ajis.v19i0.1211
Section
Selected Papers from the Australasian Conference on Information Systems (ACIS)