The Transdisciplinary Orientation Scale: Factor Structure and Relation to the Integrative Quality and Scope of Scientific Publications

The collaborative success of cross-disciplinary scientific teams depends in part on the intrapersonal, interpersonal, and intellectual orientations individual team members bring to the group. This paper extends earlier conceptualizations of Transdisciplinary Orientation (TDO) --defined as the values, attitudes, beliefs, conceptual skills and knowledge, and behavioral repertoires that predispose an individual to collaborating effectively in cross-disciplinary scientific teams---by developing a new metric to assess individual team members’ TDO. In study 1, we tested the internal consistency and factor structure of the TDO scale. Strongest support was found for a two-factor correlated model of transdisciplinary orientation with two dimensions—Values, Attitudes, and Beliefs (VAB) and Conceptual Skills and Behaviors (CSB). In study 2, we examined the relationships between individuals’ self-reported TDO and the intellectual qualities of their scientific outputs and their past experiences in cross-disciplinary teams. Individuals reporting higher TDO had published significantly more interdisciplinary research articles with higher potential societal impact as judged by independent raters. Past experience in interdisciplinary teams was found to be significantly and positively related to TDO. The TDO scale provides a useful metric for evaluating changes in individuals’ TDO and a team’s collective TDO that may result from their educational and collaborative research experiences.