Is science becoming more inter-disciplinary? A citation analysis of journal citation patterns in Scopus

摘要

It is often stated that research is becoming increasingly inter-disciplinary (e.g. Braun & Schubert, 2007). Yet it is acknowledged that information is 'affective', and may influence the behaviour of those who use it (e.g. Albright, 2010). Researchers now regularly borrow ideas and approaches from other fields, and discuss their ideas and results with their colleagues, to inform and direct their own research. We wondered whether this alleged trend of increasing inter-disciplinarity would indeed be supported by an investigation of the direction of citations within the published literature.