Forum for Research on Phenomenon-Oriented Science (FoRPhOS)

“Phenomenon-oriented research encompasses various fields and disciplines, where the focus is on studying and understanding specific phenomena.”

Significance and Relevance

FoRPhOS recognizes the transformative global challenges of our times - migration, terrorism, natural disasters, pandemics, and advanced technology, such as AI. These phenomena aren’t isolated to single disciplines; instead, they demand a cross-disciplinary approach to fully comprehend and effectively address them.

Regrettably, existing evaluation metrics are discipline-bound and overlook the valuable contributions from interdisciplinary or phenomenon-oriented research. Consequently, researchers are often compelled to publish within their specific disciplines to gain recognition and enhance their career prospects, consequently stifling the transdisciplinary exploration and understanding needed for these complex phenomena.

Our primary objective at FoRPhOS is to pioneer a new system of metrics capable of evaluating both individual and institutional efforts in phenomenon-oriented research.

Research Query

The crux of our initiative is captured in the question: “How can we measure and visualize research impact in phenomenon-oriented research fields that different disciplines contribute to?” Through this, we strive to bring forth an equitable evaluation method that acknowledges the vital role of transdisciplinary contributions.

Objectives and Methods

Our project has two main objectives: refining our methodology and data extraction processes, and applying our metrics and tools to various fields, such as terrorism research, the study of wicked problems, or AI.

  1. Refinement of Methodology and Generalization: Our project expands and refines our pilot study published in Quantitative Science Studies, MIT Journal. Leveraging Open Science principles, we’ll share our data extraction, processing codes, and generated data with the community, aligning with the Open Science Policy of the Volkswagen Foundation.
  2. Application to Various Fields: The proposed study requires analyzing an extensive corpus of bibliographic data related to terrorism research. Our aim is to develop an open, accessible corpus of data for interdisciplinary fields, which could be used by other researchers. We’ll perform analyses using network science, generating citation networks, collaboration networks, and journal citation networks.

Data Extraction and Processing

We’ll extract data from different resources such as Scopus, Microsoft Academic Graphs, Semantic Scholar, and Crossref. Our earlier study utilized data from Scopus and Semantic Scholar, and we intend to do the same for this project. Despite the access restrictions on some data sources, our commitment to Open Science will guide us in finding the best possible alternatives

Towards a More Comprehensive Understanding

By offering this more comprehensive approach to measuring research impact, we believe FoRPhOS can catalyze a fundamental shift in academic evaluation systems. Our hope is that this shift will foster a deeper, more multi-faceted understanding of the global challenges we face, and spur the development of more effective, holistic solutions.

Team

Publications

Grants