Interdisciplinary work in smaller systems: an advantage that is rarely used

Smaller research communities have less disciplinary separation than large ones — people know each other across fields, and the walls between departments are lower.

That is a genuine structural advantage for interdisciplinary work, and it is rarely used deliberately.

Why the advantage exists

• People across fields know one another personally.
• Fewer institutional barriers between units.
• Problems arrive as problems rather than as disciplinary questions.
• Less pressure to conform to one field's boundaries.
• Access to real problems that need several fields.

The obstacles

• Vocabulary differences — the same word meaning different things, unnoticed for months.
• Different evidence standards.
• Assessment by single-field panels.
• Fewer people, so less depth in each field.
• Publication difficulty when reviewers know only one side.

Using the advantage

• Start from a real local problem rather than from a methodological interest.
• Bring in the fields the problem requires, not the ones you know.
• Write a shared glossary early — this seems excessive and repeatedly proves necessary.
• Agree evidence standards explicitly at the start.
• Involve those who would use the findings.

Handling the vocabulary problem

• Define key terms in the project's own glossary.
• Ask what someone means rather than assuming.
• Expect to explain basics repeatedly — this is not a failure of anyone's competence.
• Meet more often early, when misunderstanding is cheapest to fix.

Publishing it

• Decide the primary audience, which determines everything else.
• Explain the other field's contribution in terms the audience understands.
• Expect reviewers who know one side only.
• Consider two papers for two audiences where contributions genuinely differ.
• Regional and local venues may be more receptive to genuinely cross-field applied work.

Assessment risk

• Single-field panels may undervalue it — this is a real cost.
• Explain the contribution in terms each field recognises.
• Keep a record of outcomes and uptake.
• Know the risk in advance and decide deliberately.

One thing worth remembering

Write a shared glossary in the first week.

It takes an hour, it feels unnecessary, and it prevents the specific failure that ends interdisciplinary projects: two competent people working productively for months on entirely different understandings of the same word.

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