Multidisciplinarity, interdisciplinarity, and transdisciplinarity in health research, services, education and policy: 3. Discipline, inter-discipline distance, and selection of discipline.

BACKGROUND/PURPOSE: Multiple disciplinary efforts are increasingly encouraged in health research, services, education and policy. This paper is the third in a series. The first discussed the definitions, objectives, and evidence of effectiveness of multiple disciplinary teamwork. The second examined the promoters, barriers, and ways to enhance such teamwork. This paper addresses the questions of discipline, inter-discipline distance, and where to look for multiple disciplinary collaboration.

METHODS: This paper proposes a conceptual framework of the knowledge universe, based on a review of a number of key papers on the Global Brain. These key papers were identified during a literature review on multiple disciplinary teamwork, using Google and MEDLINE (1982-2007) searches.

RESULTS: A discipline is held together by a shared epistemology. In general, disciplines that are more disparate from one another epistemologically are more likely to achieve new insight for a complex problem. The proposed conceptual framework of the knowledge universe consists of several knowledge subsystems, each containing a number of disciplines. The inter-discipline distance can guide us to select appropriate disciplines for a multiple disciplinary team.

CONCLUSION: If multiple disciplinarity is called for, the proposed view of the knowledge universe as a series of knowledge subsystems and disciplines, and the place of health sciences in the knowledge universe, will help researchers, practitioners, and policy makers to identify disciplines for multiple disciplinary efforts.