Influence of interdisciplinarity on peer-review and bibliometric evaluations in physics research

It is often argued that interdisciplinary research is valued less in both q ualitative (peer-review based) as well as in quantitative (bibliometric) as sessments. A recent extensive, nation-wide evaluation of all academic physi cs groups in the Netherlands allowed us to investigate this problem empiric ally. Therefore, we first developed an operationalization of 'interdiscipli narity'. On the basis of our findings, we refute the above statement, at le ast for the field and the country involved. We found that (i) peer judgemen ts do not significantly correlate: with the degree of interdisciplinarity; (ii) only elementary bibliometric indicators correlate negatively, but (iii ) 'advanced' indicators do not correlate with the degree of interdisciplina rity, except a small correlation in the case of large programs. Thus, we fo und no general evidence for a peer-review bias as well as a bibliometric bi as against interdisciplinary research. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All r ights reserved.