Interdisciplinary penalties

Everyone, it seems, loves the idea of scholars’ interdisciplinary work. But does academe reward those – particularly young scholars – who actually do it? A new study, based on data from all people who earned PhDs in 2010, suggests the opposite, writes Scott Jaschik for Inside Higher Ed.

In the year after earning their doctorates, those in the cohort who did interdisciplinary dissertations earned on average $1,700 less than those who completed dissertations in a single field. The study was conducted by Kevin M Kniffin and Andrew S Hanks, two postdoctoral fellows at Cornell University, and has been released by the Cornell Higher Education Research Institute.
Full report on the Inside Higher Ed site