Generals or Soldiers? Scholars' Roles in Interdisciplinary Collaboration

Abstract

Interdisciplinary research has become increasingly prevalent in academia, yet it faces numerous challenges, including barriers related to disciplinary boundaries, academic norms, and authorship practices. This study explores authorship dynamics across diverse research topics to better understand how scholars contribute to interdisciplinary endeavors. Using data from PLOS Publishers and ScienceDirect comprising over 750,000 publications and 2 million authors, we examine patterns of authorship and contribution across different research topics. Our analysis reveals consistent usage patterns of Contributor Roles Taxonomy (CRediT) categories across various research topics, indicating a degree of uniformity in author contributions. Through K-means clustering, our analysis identifies four distinct author clusters: "Sergeants," "Soldiers," "Generals," and "Field Commanders." Each cluster represents unique patterns of publication output, topic involvement, and CRediT category usage. These findings offer insights into the complexities of interdisciplinary collaboration, providing valuable knowledge for improving collaboration strategies and advancing interdisciplinary research initiatives.