Western Washington University Western CEDAR WWU Graduate School Collection WWU Graduate and Undergraduate Scholarship 2014 Mapping disciplinary relationships in Astrobiology: 2001-2012 Jason W. Cornell Western Washington University Follow this and additional works at: https://cedar.wwu.edu/wwuet Part of the Geography Commons Recommended Citation Cornell, Jason W., "Mapping disciplinary relationships in Astrobiology: 2001-2012" (2014). WWU Graduate School Collection. 387. https://cedar.wwu.edu/wwuet/387 This Masters Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the WWU Graduate and Undergraduate Scholarship at Western CEDAR. It has been accepted for inclusion in WWU Graduate School Collection by an authorized administrator of Western CEDAR. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Mapping Disciplinary Relationships in Astrobiology: 2001 - 2012 By Jason W. Cornell Accepted in Partial Completion Of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Science Kathleen L. Kitto, Dean of the Graduate School ADVISORY COMMITTEE Chair, Dr. Gigi Berardi Dr. Linda Billings Dr. David Rossiter ! ! MASTER’S THESIS In presenting this thesis in partial fulfillment of the requirements for a master’s degree at Western Washington University, I grant to Western Washington University the non-exclusive royalty-free right to archive, reproduce, distribute, and display the thesis in any and all forms, including electronic format, via any digital library mechanisms maintained by WWU. I represent and warrant this is my original work, and does not infringe or violate any rights of others. I warrant that I have obtained written permission from the owner of any third party copyrighted material included in these files. I acknowledge that I retain ownership rights to the copyright of this work, including but not limited to the right to use all or part of this work in future works, such as articles or books. Library users are granted permission for individual, research, and non- commercial reproduction of this work for educational purposes only. Any further digital posting of this document requires specific permission from the author. Any copying or publication of this thesis for commercial purposes, or for financial gain, is not allowed without my written permission. Jason W. Cornell November 2014 ! ! Mapping Disciplinary Relationships in Astrobiology: 2001 - 2012 A Thesis Presented to The Faculty of Western Washington University In Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Science By Jason W. Cornell November 2014 ! Abstract ! Astrobiology is an emerging field that addresses three fundamental questions: 1) How does “life,” defined as a “self-sustaining chemical system capable of Darwinian evolution,” (Mullen, 2013, p.1) in the Universe begin and evolve? 2) Does life exist elsewhere in the Universe? & 3) What is the future of life on Earth? With such intriguing questions, all rooted in human concerns, success in answering these questions depends upon the integration of diverse scientific disciplines, including the social sciences as well as the humanities. In this thesis, I state that integration can only happen through interdisciplinary knowledge production, defined as the process of answering a question, solving a problem, or addressing a subject involving several unrelated academic disciplines in a way that forces them to cross subject boundaries in order to create new knowledge and theory (Klein & Newell, 1998). Thus, this thesis addresses the following question – What are the barriers to the social sciences and humanities having a clear presence in Astrobiology research? And what are future prospects for acceptability and funding for interdisciplinary research in Astrobiology, especially from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), which is the largest source of funding for Astrobiology (NRC, 2008)? In this thesis I review abstracts and categorize disciplinary identities iv ! of research articles published in Astrobiology, the oldest journal dedicated solely to Astrobiology, from 2001 to 2012. I then create annual spatial maps of Astrobiology research articles using bibliometrics, which are methods used to quantitatively analyze and create maps of academic literature origins. Specifically, I determine 1) the number of disciplines involved in specific Astrobiology articles, as well as 2) the extent to which a research article cites diverse disciplines. From this information, maps showing the predominance of disciplines as well as the distribution of citations, known as disciplinary diversity, are created. By looking at the organization of research, questions are raised about how disciplinary structures came about and what relationships exist among research disciplines. These questions are then analyzed through psychological and sociological ideas used to describe interdisciplinary research relationships. The results suggest that research shows little embeddedness (i.e. connection with) among multiple disciplines, likely due to entrenched disciplinary culture and privileging, in which researchers have a tendency to value and collaborate only with similar disciplines. This study concludes by offering a number of recommendations regarding promoting effective integration of the social science and humanities into Astrobiology. v ! ABSTRACT IV INTRODUCTION 1 ASTROBIOLOGY, INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH, AND SOCIETY 1 KNOWLEDGE PRODUCTION AND INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH 7 WHAT IS RESEARCH? 8 WHAT IS KNOWLEDGE PRODUCTION? 10 WHAT IS THE NATURE OF ACADEMIC JOURNALS? 15 WHAT ARE DISCIPLINES? 17 DISCIPLINARITY, MULTIDISCIPLINARITY, AND INTERDISCIPLINARITY 21 THEORETICAL FOUNDATIONS OF INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH 26 THEORIES FROM PSYCHOLOGY 27 THEORIES FROM SOCIOLOGY 29 CONCLUSIONS 32 WHAT IS ASTROBIOLOGY 33 HISTORY AND THE CHANGING DEFINITION OF ASTROBIOLOGY 33 ASTROBIOLOGY IN PRACTICE: INVOLVEMENT IN NASA SPACE MISSIONS 38 NASA ASTROBIOLOGY INSTITUTE 41 ROADMAPS AND THE CHANGE IN ASTROBIOLOGY 43 SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES IN ASTROBIOLOGY 49 SPATIAL REPRESENTATION OF ASTROBIOLOGY KNOWLEDGE PRODUCTION 52 BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE 52 ASTROBIOLOGY JOURNALS 52 HOW TO MEASURE RESEARCHER INTERDISCIPLINARITY 57 CALCULATION MATRIX 60 METHODOLOGY AND RESULTS 66 STEP BY STEP PROCEDURES 68 ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION OF RESULTS 92 PATTERNS AND RELATIONSHIPS OF DISCIPLINARY DISTRIBUTION 92 ANALYSIS OF SPATIAL PROJECTIONS BY YEAR 93 CONSISTENT PATTERNS ACROSS ALL MAPS 97 PSYCHOLOGICAL AND SOCIOLOGICAL THEORY RELATED TO IDR 99 METHODOLOGY LIMITATIONS 101 REVIEW OF FINDINGS AND SUGGESTIONS MOVING FORWARD 103 DISCIPLINARY CULTURE 103 PRIVILEGING 104 HOW TO OVERCOME THESE BARRIERS 105 NASA’S INVOLVEMENT OPPORTUNITY 106 LIMITATIONS OF THIS THESIS 112 vi ! FUTURE RESEARCH 112 EPILOGUE 114 BIBLIOGRAPHY 120 APPENDIX A - 2001 ASTROBIOLOGY ARTICLES 132 APPENDIX B - 2002 ASTROBIOLOGY ARTICLES 135 APPENDIX C - 2003 ASTROBIOLOGY ARTICLES 139 APPENDIX D - 2004 ASTROBIOLOGY ARTICLES 146 APPENDIX E - 2005 ASTROBIOLOGY ARTICLES 149 APPENDIX F - 2006 ASTROBIOLOGY ARTICLES 154 APPENDIX G - 2007 ASTROBIOLOGY ARTICLES 159 APPENDIX H - 2008 ASTROBIOLOGY ARTICLES 165 APPENDIX I - 2009 ASTROBIOLOGY ARTICLES 175 APPENDIX J - 2010 ASTROBIOLOGY ARTICLES 184 APPENDIX K - 2011 ASTROBIOLOGY ARTICLES 192 APPENDIX L - 2012 ASTROBIOLOGY ARTICLES 201 ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! vii ! TABLES TABLE 1 – MODE 1 VS. MODE 2 KNOWLEDGE PRODUCTION ................................................... 13 TABLE 2 – NASA SPACE MISSIONS AND THEIR ASTROBIOLOGY COMPONENTS .......................... 40 TABLE 3 – SUMMARY OF NAI ROADMAPS ............................................................................. 45 TABLE 4 – ASTROBIOLOGY JOURNAL IMPACT FACTORS .......................................................... 55 TABLE 5 - SUBJECT CATEGORY CALCULATIONS ..................................................................... 62 TABLE 6 – INTEGRATION MATRIX .......................................................................................... 63 TABLE 7 – ASTROBIOLOGY ARTICLES AND SUBJECT CATEGORIES ............................................. 71 TABLE 8 – MACRO-DISCIPLINES AND SUB-DISCIPLINES IN ASTROBIOLOGY ................................. 75 FIGURES FIGURE 1 - FLOWCHART OF KNOWLEDGE PRODUCTION .......................................................... 12 FIGURE 2 – DISCIPLINARITY, MULTIDISCIPLINARITY & INTERDISCIPLINARITY ................................. 26 FIGURE 3 – THEORIES COMMONLY USED TO DESCRIBE INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH .................. 27 FIGURE 4 – INTEGRATION VS. SPECIALIZATION CORRELATION .................................................. 65 FIGURE 5 – DISCIPLINARY RELATIONSHIPS ............................................................................. 67 FIGURE 6 – ORIGINAL OUTPUT FOR 2001 ASTROBIOLOGY ARTICLES ......................................... 73 FIGURE 7 – THE MAP OF SCIENCE 2007 ............................................................................... 78 FIGURE 8 – 2001 ASTROBIOLOGY SUBJECT CATEGORIES ON WEB OF SCIENCE ......................... 81 FIGURE 9 – CORE STRUCTURE OF ASTROBIOLOGY 2001 .......................................................... 81 FIGURE 10 – 2002 ASTROBIOLOGY SUBJECT CATEGORIES ON WEB OF SCIENCE ....................... 82 FIGURE 11 – CORE STRUCTURE OF ASTROBIOLOGY 2002 ........................................................ 82 FIGURE 12 – 2003 ASTROBIOLOGY SUBJECT CATEGORIES ON WEB OF SCIENCE ....................... 83 FIGURE 13 - CORE STRUCTURE OF ASTROBIOLOGY 2003 .......................................................