Identifying high-impact interdisciplinary knowledge flows: An approach combining backward and forward citation analysis

Abstract

Identifying high-impact interdisciplinary knowledge flows can provide guidance for interdisciplinary innovation management. Previous studies insufficiently address the impact of interdisciplinary knowledge flow on the target discipline, which hinders the accurate capture of valuable interdisciplinary knowledge flow. This paper proposes an innovative method to identify high-impact interdisciplinary knowledge flows by combining backward and forward citation analysis. Backward citation analysis aims to reveal the critical interdisciplinary knowledge inflow, while forward citation analysis aims to understand the continuous impact of interdisciplinary knowledge. By integrating them, the whole process of interdisciplinary knowledge flow can be comprehensively analyzed. The discipline of Information Science & Library Science (ISLS) and Biomedical Engineering are explored as the target disciplines in the case study, and the paper data from 2015 to 2023 is collected. The results reveal that the flow path can be divided into four types. In a total of 699 interdisciplinary knowledge flows of the ISLS discipline, 105 with high-impact are identified. In a total of 325 interdisciplinary knowledge flows of the Biomedical Engineering discipline, 71 with high-impact are identified. The interdisciplinary flowing knowledge units contained in them can be clustered into eight topics and six topics respectively. The three features of these knowledge units can be summarized as high expansibility and practicability, involving innovative applications and multidisciplinary integration. The method proposed offers a way to deeply understand and accurately capture the valuable interdisciplinary knowledge flow.