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Discipline (academia)
An academic discipline or academic field is a branch of knowledge. It incorporates expertise, people, projects,
communities, challenges, studies, inquiry, and research areas that are strongly associated with a given scholastic
subject area or college department. For example, the branches of science are commonly referred to as the scientific
disciplines, e.g. physics, mathematics, and biology.

Individuals associated with academic disciplines are commonly referred to as experts or specialists. Others, who may
have studied liberal arts or systems theory rather than concentrating in a specific academic discipline, are classified as
generalists.

While academic disciplines in and of themselves are more or less focused practices, scholarly approaches such as
multidisciplinarity, interdisciplinarity, transdisciplinarity, and cross-disciplinarity integrate aspects from multiple
academic disciplines, therefore addressing any problems that may arise from narrow concentration within specialized
fields of study. For example, professionals may encounter trouble communicating across academic disciplines because
of differences in language or specified concepts.

Some researchers believe that academic disciplines may be replaced by what is known as Mode 2[1] or "post-academic
science",[2] which involves the acquisition of cross-disciplinary knowledge through collaboration of specialists from
various academic disciplines.

Contents
1 History of the concept
2 Functions and criticism
3 Communities of academic disciplines
4 Interactions
4.1 Multidisciplinary
4.2 Interdisciplinary
4.3 Transdisciplinary
4.4 Cross-disciplinary

5 Bibliometric studies of disciplines

6 References
7 Further reading
8 External links

History of the concept

The University of Paris in 1231 consisted of four faculties: Theology, Medicine, Canon Law and Arts.[3]

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