New Water Policy and Practice Volume 1, Number 1 - Fall 2014 | Page 47

New Water Policy and Practice - Volume 1, Number 1 - Fall 2014

Documenting And Communicating Methods Used In Interdisciplinary Research And In Research Implementation
Gabriele BammerA
In this opinion editorial, New Water Policy and Practice International Advisory Board member Prof Gabriele Bammer (National Centre for Epidemiology
and Population Health, Australian National University, Australia) draws inspiration from her work in developing Integration and Implementation Sciences, a new discipline providing concepts and methods for conducting research on
complex, real-world problems, and discusses the importance of documenting
and communicating methods used in interdisciplinary research and in research
implementation. Gabriele recognises that this is a key challenge of interdisciplinary research and proposes ways that contributors to New Water Policy
and Practice Journal can help set the direction for interdisciplinary research.
Keywords: interdisciplinary research; Integration and Implementation
Science; policy and practice; contextual factors; research implementation

A

challenge for our new journal is to
not only describe the results of our
research on water policy and practice but also to share our methods and processes. Much of our research can be loosely
described as “interdisciplinary”. More specifically, it does one or more of the following:

not the case for established disciplines, such
as chemistry or sociology, where methods
are not only agreed and understood, but
can be described in useful shorthand.

Interdisciplinary research tends to
be more improvised, drawing on methods
from a range of sources, adapting them as
needed to the particular problem and creating new methods when established ones are
not readily available. Describing such a process when t