Beyond discipline: creating a culture for interdisciplinary research

Interdisciplinary research is not a common research paradigm. To venture from their customary disciplinary tenets and methods and risk new methodological approaches, or to compromise in order to accommodate the differences in the way disciplines approach research, requires the commitment of investigators. This paper discusses the interdisciplinary research paradigm, its culture, and how it differs from traditional research methods, and provides examples of successful and unsuccessful interdisciplinary research projects.