Is low interdisciplinarity of references an unexpectedcharacteristic of Nobel Prize winning research?
Xian Li1· Ronald Rousseau2,3· Liming Liang4· Fangjie Xi1· Yushuang Lü1·
Yifan Yuan1· Xiaojun Hu11
Abstract:In this contribution, we conduct a multi-angular analysis of the interdisciplinarity of NobelPrize winning research compared to non-Nobel Prize winning articles, based on a largedata set. Here interdisciplinarity is measured by the diversity of references, using two truediversity indicators. Articles mentioned by the Nobel Prize committee in Physiology orMedicine (in short: NP articles) awarded during the period from 1900 to 2016 are the focusof our research. These articles are compared with those in a dataset of articles that do notinclude a Nobel Prize winner among their authors. Moreover, these non-NPs articles werenot only published in the same year and in the same research field as the NP ones butwere also dealing with the same research topic (such articles are referred to as non-NP articles).The results suggest that the topic-related knowledge included in Nobel Prize winningwork is higher than that in non-NPs, hence with lower interdisciplinarity than the latter.Our findings provide useful clues to better understand the characteristics of transformativeresearch, here represented by key publications by Nobel Prize laureates in Physiology orMedicine, and their pattern of knowledge integration.
Keywords:Transformative research · Nobel Prize winning articles · Diversity ofreferences · Matching groups · Unexpected characteristics · Science of science
（政治与公共管理学院李广宇）
