Knowledge and information science as a discipline or interdisciplinary science: Rethinking the issue

• Main Authors: Abolfazl Asadnia, Ahmad Shabani
• Format: Article
• Language: fas
• Published: Central Library of Astan Quds Razavi 2016-09-01
• Series: کتابداری و اطلاع‌رسانی
• Subjects: knowledge and information science; interdisciplinary studies; interdisciplinarity; typology; classification of sciences
• Online Access: http://lis.aqr-libjournal.ir/article_46323_e9585475562ff2a0b355e4e3599f0359.pdf

<strong>Purpose</strong>: This research aimed at examining the existing literature of interdisciplinary studies to determine the status of knowledge and information Science (KIS) as a discipline or interdisciplinary field. It was also conducted to answer the question whether it would be possible to view KIS as an interdisciplinary field of scientific research before being accepted as a scientific field <strong>Methodology</strong>: This was a library research conducted through analyzing the experts’ view and reviewing the literature in the field of interdisciplinary studies. <strong>Findings</strong>: Seven major types of interdisciplinary studies were identified including: intradisciplinarity, cross disciplinarity, interdisciplinarity, multidisciplinarity, pluridisciplinarity, transdisciplinarity, post-disciplinarity. Among them, only cross disciplinarity and interdisciplinary would lead to the birth of a new scientific discipline but KIS was not the result of any of them. <strong>Conclusion</strong>: In terms of topics and issues, KIS could be distinguished as a discipline from other fields of science because its subject is only the recorded information. But due to the complexity of the concept of information, researchers in this field have moved on to interdisciplinary studies that could not be considered as a weak point for this discipline but also it would lead to the growth and development of this filed.