Interdisciplinary knowledge integration in public affairs scholarship: An empirical analysis of the contributions of public administration, policy sciences, and nonprofit studies

Figures & data

Figure 1. Relative interdisciplinary research integration.

Table 1. Summary of research questions, data, and methods used for analyses.

Research Questions	Units of Analysis	Total Units (Supplemental Appendices D-E)	Methods (Supplemental Appendices F)
How do the fields of PA, PP, and Nonprofit journals each contribute to interdisciplinary knowledge integration in public affairs?	Journal articles published in NVSQ, NML, Voluntas, and the forty-two PA and PP journals categorized as “Public administration” in the Web of Science (WoS) source index between 2009–2020	20,292 articles 991,627 citations	Visualized journal co-citation networks based on articles published in all public affairs, PA, PP, and Nonprofit journals Cluster analysis of journal co-citation networks Analyzed of co-citation network cluster membership based on journal/node discipline Described and visualized distribution of WoS journal citations by discipline for articles published in PA, PP, and nonprofit journals Used Rafols and Meyer’s (2010) typology to visualize and assess relative interdisciplinary knowledge integration
How do patterns of (inter)disciplinary knowledge integration vary across topics of mutual interest at the nexus of PA/PP and Nonprofit studies	Cross-citing journal articles: Articles published in NVSQ, NML, and Voluntas between 2009–2020 that cite one of the forty-two PA and PP journals indexed in WoS Articles published in one of the forty-two PA and PP journals indexed in WoS between 2009–2020 that cite NVSQ, NML, or Voluntas	2,145 articles 110,167 citations	Identified top five disciplines cited across articles in each research categories at the PA/PP-Nonprofit nexus Used Rafols and Meyer’s (2010) typology to visualize and assess relative interdisciplinary knowledge integration for articles in each research categories at the PA/PP-Nonprofit nexus Exploratory analyses (see Appendix K): Compared top five disciplines cited across articles published in PA/PP versus Nonprofit journals for select research categories Used Rafols and Meyer’s (2010) typology to visualize and compare relative interdisciplinary knowledge integration across PA/PP versus Nonprofit articles in select research categories

Figure 2. Journal co-citation network based on articles in all public affairs journals.

Figure 3. Journal co-citation network based on articles in PA journals.

Figure 4. Journal co-citation network based on articles in PP journals.

Figure 5. Journal co-citation network based on articles in nonprofit journals.

Figure 6. Percent of citations by discipline across articles published in PA, PP, and Nonprofit journals between 2009–2020.

Figure 7. Relative interdisciplinary knowledge integration by field from 2009–2020.

Table 2. Research categories at the PA/PP-Nonprofit nexus with article count, dominant field, and top four cited disciplines.

Category	Article count by field	Dominant field (by article count)	Top four disciplines by journal citation frequency
1: Organizational behavior	PA: 144 PP: 6 Nonprofit: 101 Total: 251	Public administration (PA)	Public administration: 33% Business & management: 27% Nonprofit: 10% Psychology & psychiatry: 8%
2: Organization performance, accountability & transparency	PA: 94 PP: 12 Nonprofit: 129 Total: 235	Nonprofit studies (Nonprofit)	Public administration: 22% Nonprofit: 22% Business & management: 15% Accounting & finance: 7%
3: Public policy & governance	PA: 68 PP: 83 Nonprofit: 76 Total: 227	Public policy (PP)	Public administration: 19% Political science: 17% Public policy: 15% Nonprofit: 11%
4: Organization operations, strategy & change	PA: 94 PP: 6 Nonprofit: 118 Total: 218	Nonprofit studies (Nonprofit)	Business & management: 29% Nonprofit: 20% Public administration: 18% Arts & humanities: 4%
5: Collaboration, networks & partnerships	PA: 118 PP: 10 Nonprofit: 73 Total: 201	Public administration (PA)	Public administration: 35% Business & management: 22% Nonprofit: 13% Sociology: 5%
6: Public service provision	PA: 91 PP: 27 Nonprofit: 36 Total: 154	Public administration (PA)	Public administration: 41% Business & management: 10% Nonprofit: 8% Public policy: 6%
7: Financial management	PA: 27 PP: 9 Nonprofit: 90 Total: 126	Nonprofit studies (Nonprofit)	Nonprofit: 33% Economics: 15% Public administration: 13% Business & management: 10%
8: Civil society	PA: 20 PP: 11 Nonprofit: 94 Total: 125	Nonprofit studies (Nonprofit)	Nonprofit: 27% Business & management: 12% Sociology: 11% Public administration: 9%
9: Volunteering	PA: 30 PP: 7 Nonprofit: 87 Total: 124	Nonprofit studies (Nonprofit)	Nonprofit: 24% Business & management: 14% Psychology & psychiatry: 12% Public administration: 10%
10: Philanthropy & charitable giving	PA: 25 PP: 12 Nonprofit: 81 Total: 118	Nonprofit studies (Nonprofit)	Nonprofit: 24% Economics: 17% Business & management: 13% Psychology & psychiatry: 9%
11: Sector relations and distinctions	PA: 43 PP: 9 Nonprofit: 65 Total: 117	Nonprofit studies (Nonprofit)	Public administration: 23% Business & management: 15% Nonprofit: 15% Economics: 7%
12: Critical issues for nonprofit distinctiveness	PA: 24 PP: 7 Nonprofit: 62 Total: 93	Nonprofit studies (Nonprofit)	Nonprofit: 26% Public administration: 15% Business & management: 13% Sociology: 8%
13: Civic engagement & political participation	PA: 17 PP: 6 Nonprofit: 41 Total: 64	Nonprofit studies (Nonprofit)	Political science: 17% Sociology: 15% Public administration: 15% Nonprofit: 14%
14: Social entrepreneurship, value & innovation	PA: 15 PP: 4 Nonprofit: 43 Total: 62	Nonprofit studies (Nonprofit)	Business & management: 40% Nonprofit: 14% Public administration: 9% Economics: 5%
15: State of research and teaching	PA: 13 PP: 4 Nonprofit: 12 Total: 29	Nonprofit studies (Nonprofit)	Public administration: 38% Nonprofit: 17% Public policy: 11% Business & management: 10%

Table 3. Relative interdisciplinary knowledge integration by category in the PA/PP-Nonprofit nexus from 2009–2020.

Category	Dominant field by article count	Citation Network Coherence	Diversity of Cited Journals	Relative interdisciplinary knowledge integration*
1: Organizational behavior	Public administration (PA)	Above Mean	Below Mean	Quadrant D: Specialized knowledge integration within field
2: Organization performance, accountability & transparency	Nonprofit studies (Nonprofit)	Below Mean	Above Mean	Quadrant A: Potential for interdisciplinary knowledge integration
3: Public policy & governance	Public policy (PP)	Below Mean	Above Mean	Quadrant A: Potential for interdisciplinary knowledge integration
4: Organization operations, strategy & change	Nonprofit studies (Nonprofit)	Below Mean	Below Mean	Quadrant C: Potential for knowledge integration within field
5: Collaboration, networks & partnerships	Public administration (PA)	Above Mean	Below Mean	Quadrant D: Specialized knowledge integration within field
6: Public service provision	Public administration (PA)	Above Mean	Below Mean	Quadrant D: Specialized knowledge integration within field
7: Financial management	Nonprofit studies (Nonprofit)	Above Mean	Below Mean	Quadrant D: Specialized knowledge integration within field
8: Civil society	Nonprofit studies (Nonprofit)	Below Mean	Above Mean	Quadrant A: Potential for interdisciplinary knowledge integration
9: Volunteering	Nonprofit studies (Nonprofit)	Above Mean	Above Mean	Quadrant B: Achieved interdisciplinary knowledge integration
10: Philanthropy & charitable giving	Nonprofit studies (Nonprofit)	Above Mean	Above Mean	Quadrant B: Achieved interdisciplinary knowledge integration
11: Sector relations and distinctions	Nonprofit studies (Nonprofit)	Below Mean	Above Mean	Quadrant A: Potential for interdisciplinary knowledge integration
12: Critical issues for nonprofit distinctiveness	Nonprofit studies (Nonprofit)	Below Mean	Above Mean	Quadrant A: Potential for interdisciplinary knowledge integration
13: Civic engagement & political participation	Nonprofit studies (Nonprofit)	Below Mean	Above Mean	Quadrant A: Potential for interdisciplinary knowledge integration
14: Social entrepreneurship, value & innovation	Nonprofit studies (Nonprofit)	Above Mean	Below Mean	Quadrant D: Specialized knowledge integration within field
15: State of research and teaching	Nonprofit studies (Nonprofit)	Below Mean	Below Mean	Quadrant C: Specialized for knowledge integration within field

*Quadrants from Figure 8; Darker cells indicate greater relative knowledge integration; Table 3 information visualized in Supplemental Appendix L.

Rafols, I., & Meyer, M. (2010). Diversity and network coherence as indicators of interdisciplinarity: Case studies in bionanoscience. Scientometrics, 82(2), 263–287. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-009-0041-y

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