Acknowledgements
Preface
Chapter guides

Part 1 The Handbook – ‘The What’
1 Introduction
2 What is science? A brief philosophy of science
2.1 What is science?
2.2 Moving through the Science Cycle
3 The disciplines
3.1 Academic disciplines: A brief history
3.2 Our definition of a discipline
3.3 Classification of academic disciplines
4 Interdisciplinarity
5 Complexity: the main driving force behind interdisciplinarity
5.1 Complex (adaptive) systems
5.2 Complexity broken down into drivers of interdisciplinarity
6 Interdisciplinary integration
6.1 Communication as a first step to integration
6.2 Integration techniques
Part 2 The Manual – ‘The How’
7 The interdisciplinary research process
7.1 The IIS model of interdisciplinary research
7.2 Planning your research project
8 The problem
Step 1 Identify problem or topic
Step 2 Formulate preliminary research question
9 Theoretical framework and research question
Step 3 Develop theoretical framework
Step 4 Finalize research question
Step 5 Formulate sub-questions
10 How to collect and analyze your data
Step 6 Develop research methods and design
Step 7 Data collection and analysis
11 Discussion and conclusion(s)
Step 8 Interpret results, discuss research & draw conclusion(s)
Part 3 Interdisciplinary research in practice
12 Interdisciplinary research example: fogponics
Step 1 Identify problem or topic
Step 2 Formulate preliminary research question
Step 3 Develop theoretical framework
Step 4 Finalize research question
Step 5 Formulate sub-questions
Step 6 Develop research methods and design
Step 7 Data collection and analysis
Step 8 Interpret results, discuss research & draw conclusion(s)
13 Interdisciplinary careers
Further reading
References
References Research projects undertaken by IIS students