Patterns of collaboration in emerging fields of trans-disciplinary science: The case of sustainability science

This paper examines the patterns of collaboration over national and disciplinary boundaries in emerging fields of trans-disciplinary science, taking the case of sustainability science as an example. Bibliometric data is used for empirical analysis. The patterns of collaboration on sustainability science show that research collaboration tends to be conducted between countries which are geographically located closely. That suggests that communication and information exchange could be limited within regional clusters. As the focused fields of research in sustainability science are different in each country, the formation of regional clusters could be a serious obstacle to collecting, exchanging, and integrating diverse types of knowledge, which is of critical importance in establishing the trans-disciplinary field of sustainability science. To address the challenge of knowledge integration, new types of organizational and institutional arrangements are emerging for research collaboration. Implications for organizational and institutional arrangements are discussed. The extent of knowledge integration between different disciplines in sustainability science is investigated. © 2008 PICMET.