Interdisciplinary Research

RAKMHSU — Interdisciplinary Research Scoring Methodology (2025 Edition)

RAK Medical & Health Sciences University | Office of the Vice President for Research & Postgraduate Studies | 2025 Publications

#	Criterion	Max Pts	Scoring Scale	Rationale	Data Source	ISR Alignment
M1	Disciplinary Diversity	18	5 subjects = 18 \| 4 = 16 \| 3 = 12 \| 2 = 7	More disciplines = deeper integration. Core ISR principle: true interdisciplinarity requires genuine multi-field synthesis.	Count Subject (Elsevier/Scopus)	Core ISR definition of interdisciplinarity
M2	ISR Core Discipline Presence	16	3+ ISR core = 16 \| 2 core = 13 \| 1 core + Medical = 10 \| 1 core only = 7 \| none = 3	ISR 2026 requires at least 1 of 4 core sciences (Engineering, Physical Sciences, Life Sciences, CS). Medical alone does not qualify.	THE field classification columns	Directly mirrors ISR 2026 eligibility criteria
M3	Field-Weighted Citation Impact (FWCI)	16	≥5.0 = 16 \| ≥2.0 = 12 \| ≥1.0 = 8 \| >0 = 4 \| = 0 = 0 (FWCI=0 is expected for 2025 papers — M7 compensates via FWVI)	FWCI=1.0 equals world average. For 2025 papers, FWCI=0 is normal — no penalty applied. M7 (FWVI) serves as the recency proxy.	Field-Weighted Citation Impact (Elsevier)	ISR Quality of Research metric (20% ISR weight)
M4	Topic Prominence Percentile	16	Score = (percentile / 100) × 16 \| Range in dataset: 49.8 to 99.9 \| Mean: 92.8	Measures alignment with fast-growing, high-momentum global research topics. High prominence signals frontier research with strategic importance.	Topic Prominence Percentile (SciVal/Elsevier)	Related to ISR utility and cross-discipline citation impact (C-Score)
M5	International Collaboration	11	Countries: (N−1) × 2, max 7 \| Institutions: (N−1) × 1, max 4 \| Total max = 11	Multi-institutional international collaboration reflects research maturity. Particularly relevant for medical research addressing global health challenges.	Number of Countries/Regions + Number of Institutions	Supports ISR reputation metric (25%) and cross-discipline citation impact
M6	Field-Weighted Top Citation Percentile	14	Top 1% = 14 \| Top 5% = 11 \| Top 10% = 8 \| Top 25% = 5 \| Top 50% = 2 \| Outside = 0	Confirms whether the paper ranks among the global elite for citations within its field — independent of the raw FWCI number.	Field-Weighted Outputs in Top Citation Percentiles (Elsevier)	ISR Outputs pillar — proportion and utility of interdisciplinary publications
M7	Field-Weighted View Impact (FWVI)	9	Top 10% in dataset (≥4.62) = 9 \| Top 25% (≥2.81) = 7 \| Top 50% (≥1.45) = 5 \| Top 75% (≥0.87) = 3 \| Below = 1 (No paper has FWVI=0 in dataset)	Critical proxy for 2025 papers awaiting citation accumulation. FWVI captures immediate global readership interest before citations build up. All 125 papers have FWVI > 0.	Field-Weighted View Impact (Elsevier)	Proxy for future citation impact — essential for evaluating recent interdisciplinary output fairly
TOTAL		100	M1(18) + M2(16) + M3(16) + M4(16) + M5(11) + M6(14) + M7(9) = 100 points

Design Rationale for 2025 Edition:FWCI=0 is not penalised (M3=0) because all papers are from 2025 and have not had sufficient time to accumulate citations. Instead, M7 (FWVI = Field-Weighted View Impact) serves as the leading indicator of impact, capturing immediate global readership interest. No paper in the dataset has FWVI=0, ensuring full discrimination across all 125 papers. FWVI is scored relative to the dataset's own percentile distribution (p25=0.87, p50=1.45, p75=2.81, p90=4.62).