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Taking histories: joint working of disciplines in medical history scholarship

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Abstract

Background and aims

While there is an increasing emphasis on the value of interdisciplinarity in scholarship in the medical humanities, it is unknown to what extent there is joint working between historians and clinicians in medical history. We aimed to quantify evidence of joint working in authorship of medical history papers.

Methods

Observational survey of authorship. We studied authorship data in all papers published in the three major medical history journals between 2009 and 2019 (n = 634).

Results

The majority of medical history papers is written by single authors with single disciplinary affiliations (68%), most commonly history (65%): fewer than one paper in seven (14%) shows evidence of joint working between disciplines in authorship. A minority of papers (8%) are written by authors with primary medical affiliations. Almost three-quarters (71%) of papers have an acknowledgements section, but only 6% shows clear evidence of joint working between disciplines in the acknowledgements.

Conclusions

Scholarship engaging both historians and clinicians is rare in medical history journals. Possible solutions include enhanced research collaborations between historians and clinicians, interdisciplinary educational seminars and cross-institutional knowledge exchanges.

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Data availability

Data available from corresponding author on request.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Medicine, Trinity Biomedical Sciences Institute, Trinity College, 152-160 Pearse Street, Dublin 2, D02 R590, Ireland

    Daniel Duma, Linus Wong, Desmond O’Neill & Brendan D. Kelly

  2. Centre for Ageing, Neuroscience and the Humanities, Trinity College Dublin, Trinity Centre for Health Sciences, Tallaght University Hospital, Dublin, D24 NR0A, Ireland

    Desmond O’Neill

  3. Department of Psychiatry, Trinity Centre for Health Sciences, Tallaght University Hospital, Dublin, D24 NR0A, Ireland

    Brendan D. Kelly

Authors
  1. Daniel Duma
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  2. Linus Wong
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  3. Desmond O’Neill
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  4. Brendan D. Kelly
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Contributions

All authors contributed to all stages of this paper.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Linus Wong or Brendan D. Kelly.

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Duma, D., Wong, L., O’Neill, D. et al. Taking histories: joint working of disciplines in medical history scholarship. Ir J Med Sci 190, 1533–1535 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11845-021-02511-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11845-021-02511-8

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