The Role of Search in Scientific Productivity: Inside, Outside, and Interdisciplinary Dimensions

The practice of science in the United States has recently undergone significant change.
This is the result of improved information technology, the growing complexity of research
problems, and policies that favor interdisciplinary research. Using evidence on U.S. universities
we find that knowledge-flows from other universities have increased relative to flows from the
same university and that knowledge-flows from other universities have become more important
for new scientific discoveries compared with same university flows.
In contrast, interdisciplinary knowledge-flows have increased only slightly relative to
same field flows. In engineering, which has been an objective of policies that promote
interdisciplinary research, the share of interdisciplinary flows has increased markedly. But the
share has decreased in several other disciplines. Moreover, the importance of interdisciplinary
flows in new discoveries has stayed about the same, while same field flows have become more
important. While a verdict is yet to be rendered, one interpretation is that interdisciplinary
research is still at an early stage. Thus while interdisciplinary flows have begun to increase, the
resulting discoveries may yet lie in the future.

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