Is interdisciplinarity more likely to produce novel or disruptive research?

Although many studies suggest that interdisciplinary research fosters creativity and breakthroughs, there has been no quantitative study to confirm this belief. In recent years, several indicators have been developed to measure novelty or disruption in research. Compared with the citation impact, this type of indicator can more directly characterize research quality and contribution. Based on the F1000 Prime database and Scopus datasets accessed via ICSR Lab, F1000 novelty tags and two disruption indices (DI₁ and DI₅) were used in this study for the assessment of research quality and contribution, and it was explored whether interdisciplinarity is more likely to produce novel or disruptive research. Interestingly, DI₁ and DI₅ exhibit different relationships with F1000 novelty tags; the reason for this may be that DI₅ highlights disruptive research within a given discipline and amplifies the disruptive signal within that discipline. Furthermore, it is found that interdisciplinarity (RS and LCDiv) is positively associated with F1000 novelty tags and the disruption indices (DI₁ and DI₅). As a result, it is demonstrated that interdisciplinarity helps to produce novel or disruptive research.