The Research On Interdisciplinary Research Productivity In Research Universities

As a central pivot of knowledge, research universities are playing an important role in the process of human knowledge production and application. With the development and integration of science and technology, interdisciplinary research has become an era sign of the contemporary scientific and technological development, occupying an increasingly essential position in research universities and displaying more and more important function. That how to improve the productivity of interdisciplinary research, so that interdisciplinary research is to be more effectively carried out in research universities has become an urgent subject in human knowledge production and application process. However, researches regarding the productivity of interdisciplinary research of research universities are rarely seen in academic circles. Because of this, it is logically understandable that how to improve the productivity of interdisciplinary research in research universities will play an important part in the paper, with its evident significance in both theory and reality.In this paper, with the adoption of such methods as theoretical interpretation, content analysis, case studies, questionnaire surveys and data analysis, a relatively profound research has been conducted on the productivity of interdisciplinary research in research universities. Specifically, the paper is centered around three major issues:(1) The research on the impact factors and their relative importance for interdisciplinary research productivity in research universities; (2) The construction of enhancement mechanism of interdisciplinary research productivity in research universities; (3) Suggestions and countermeasures to promote the development of interdisciplinary research productivity in research universities.Based on the research, the following innovative conclusions have been produced in the paper:(1) The output capacity produced from scientific research activities by formal or informal research organizations consisting of scientists in different disciplines to solve common issues that are beyond single disciplinary boundaries, is what is referred to as interdisciplinary research productivity, including the capacity in knowledge production and application. In this paper, in-depth interviews that last for about one hour have been conducted respectively toward such 45 people as managers, project leaders or participants of interdisciplinary research organizations in research universities, and the research method content analysis has been applied in the conversational materials of the 45 interviewees, from which it is found that interdisciplinary research evaluation mechanism is the most crucial factor that impacts interdisciplinary research productivity in research universities, that interdisciplinary research management system, interdisciplinary research operational mechanism, the contacts between interdisciplinary research organization and industrial circles and reasonable interdisciplinary research organizations count as the second important factors, and that the national support of interdisciplinary research is of the least significance to influence interdisciplinary research productivity in research universities.(2) Through a combination of the successful practices of the interdisciplinary research productivity enhancement in three research universities overseas and with 203 sampling questionnaires, an empirical study about the theoretical model construction of interdisciplinary research productivity in research universities conducted in the paper has verified that reasonable title structure, academic hierarchy, discipline structure and age structure, etc. have had a significantly positive impact on interdisciplinary research productivity, and that the foundation of interdisciplinary academic committee, the implementation of director responsibility system under the leadership of committee, the establishment of special fund in interdisciplinary research on school level, the development of interdisciplinary research around practical problems, the effective communication among research members, the vigorous cultivation of interdisciplinary talents, the rational allocation of interdisciplinary research funding, the satisfaction of the requirements in industrial circles, the attraction of industrial circles cooperation, the collaborative research with industrial circles, and the acceptance of research suggestions from industrial circles, etc. are also of evident positive influences on the enhancement of interdisciplinary research productivity. What is of particular importance is the establishment of a sound interdisciplinary academic evaluation system, the encouragement of teamwork in evaluation and the recognition of the achievements published in other academic publications, all of which are positively related with the enhancement of interdisciplinary research productivity in an obvious kind of way. However, the support from the state as major projects, the establishment of special funds in interdisciplinary programs, the management from specialized institutions and the foundation of interdisciplinary research platform on national level are not positively related with interdisciplinary research productivity in research universities in a positive sense.(3) By scanning the core resource maps of interdisciplinary research productivity enhancement in research universities and the in-depth analysis of the overall background of the improvement of interdisciplinary research productivity in research universities, it has been indicated that the formulation of interdisciplinary research strategy, the enhancement of top-level design in interdisciplinary research, the establishment of shared service system, the stimulation of network effect of interdisciplinary knowledge, the promotion of discipline open borders, the construction of effective organizational learning mode, the cultivation of science and technology integration, the building of eco-environment for the development of interdisciplinary research productivity are likely to be important suggestions and countermeasures for the enhancement of interdisciplinary research productivity in research universities.The major contribution of the paper includes the following parts:The paper identifies the impact factors and their relative significances when influencing interdisciplinary research productivity in research universities, providing references and examples for the practices of interdisciplinary research; the paper constructs a mechanism model to enhance the interdisciplinary research productivity in research universities, offering possible concepts to the improvement of interdisciplinary research productivity; the paper raises the countermeasures to promote the enhancement of interdisciplinary research productivity in research universities, enriching the theoretical explorations of interdisciplinary research productivity enhancement.