Identifying Crossover Documents in an Interdisciplinary Research Environment

Abstract

AIRFrame is a NASA project to analyze and integrate astrobiology documents from diverse disciplines to catalyze new knowledge. This paper outlines the technical infrastructure of the current system and reports on an ongoing iterative evaluation, to address the question of how scientists perceive and integrate crossover documents in their research. Some of the obstacles preventing AIRFrame from gaining traction with its target audience of astrobiology researchers include representing their research output accurately, effectively translating and relating diverse metadata, and understanding disciplinary norms and the broader knowledge production infrastructure. The skills required to address these needs suggest a role for both researchers and information professionals to work in tandem with technical tools to catalyze interdisciplinary knowledge. A graduate seminar in interdisciplinary knowledge production, targeted at both researchers and graduate students at the University of Hawaii, has been designed to elicit and impart needed information as input to ongoing AIRFrame development.