Interdisciplinary research attracts greater attention from policy documents: evidence from COVID-19

Abstract

Interdisciplinary research is increasingly recognized as one of the solutions to today’s challenging scientific and societal issues. Many studies have aimed to explore the relationship between the interdisciplinarity of research and the attention they receive from the scientific community as well as society. However, the relationship between interdisciplinarity and attention from policy documents remains unclear. In this study, we utilize publications data on the COVID-19 topic to explore such a relationship. Through the analysis and interpretation of empirical datasets, this research finds that there is a positive correlation between the interdisciplinarity of scientific publications and the attention they receive from policy documents in almost all fields. Among the three dimensions (i.e., variety, balance, and disparity) of interdisciplinarity, variety exhibits the most pronounced positive impact on political attention. This study fills a previous research gap and provides insights for researchers and policymakers, highlighting that interdisciplinary research holds greater potential to impact policy formulation and implementation processes.