New measure captures how scientists' identities shift across academic disciplines
Does the academic discipline of a scientist's doctorate accurately capture their disciplinary affiliation decades later?
Does the academic discipline of a scientist's doctorate accurately capture their disciplinary affiliation decades later?
The short version
- Consider a scientist who earned a doctorate in physics 25 years ago who now studies climate change, publishes primarily in interdisciplinary journals and considers herself a climate scientist.
- Does "physics" still accurately describe where she fits in science?
- This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies .
What happened
Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Does the academic discipline of a scientist's doctorate accurately capture their disciplinary affiliation decades later? A new study led by researchers at Rice University and Michigan State University argues that the answer is often no.
Why it matters
Published in PLOS One , the study offers a more nuanced way to understand scientific affiliation at a time when researchers increasingly work across traditional academic boundaries.
Summary by Nerd News Network. Read the full article at Phys.org via the links above and below.