Duke Research in Perspective: Trend of publications and interdisciplinarity of Duke's education and research

Abstract

We investigate the trends in interdisciplinary research at Duke University using datasets provided by Scholars@Duke and The Graduate School. The data holds bibliographical information on faculty appointments, their publications (including abstracts and publication venues ), and faculty members of PhD dissertation committees for students completing their PhD degrees from 2012 to 2017. By looking at the total number of publications at Duke, we observe a descending trend over the course of five years in all schools except Duke Law School. We then look at the fraction of these publications that cross departmental and school boundaries. The results depict fluctuations over time in most cases; however some meaningful trends in the interdisciplinary research are observed . For instance, Institutes and Provost’s Academic Units , and Trinity College of Arts and Sciences have been showing an increase in the fraction of interdisciplinary publications despite the decrease in their total number of published papers. To see the overlap between schools, we look at the graphs of coauthorships between different organization/departments, and how PhD students in each department select their dissertation committee members from different schools. The School of Medicine , and Trinity College of Arts and Sciences are the leading schools with the largest number of publications and collaborations. By looking at these graphs we can see that School of Medicine has done an incredible job at crossing the boundaries and collaborating with almost all the other schools across Duke. The same two schools have the largest number of faculty who serve as dissertation committee members in all schools and departments across Duke.