Muliti-disciplinary research requires careful navigational skills, as Amy Nisselle and Rony Duncan explain.

GRADUATE STUDIES
It’s now more and more common for Masters and PhD students in Australia to undertake projects that cross fields of research.
The problem is, multi-disciplinary research is a relatively new phenomenon. Students are often supervised by experts who did not do multi-disciplinary student projects themselves.
Modern students therefore have an important task. In addition to submitting their thesis, they might need to educate their supervisors about the challenges of being a multi-disciplinary student.
As multi-disciplinary students ourselves, we’re taking the opportunity to provide some insight and tips about the possibly rocky road to completion in multi-disciplinary research.
First there are the practical challenges. With supervisors on different campuses or even in different countries, meetings rarely occur with everyone present. This can influence your thinking and might lead you to align more closely with one discipline.
Different disciplines also vary in the frequency of supervision meetings. In applied professional fields such as health, you may struggle to find a time when your supervisor, who juggles research and clinical work, is free. In the sciences, on the other hand, you might see your supervisor in the laboratory every day.
Co-ordinating feedback from multiple supervisors on a piece of work can be incredibly frustrating. Sending a draft to all of our co-supervisors at once often resulted in contradictory recommendations. We’d suggest sending your work to one supervisor at a time, or giving each supervisor a specific focus for feedback.
Even where you physically sit will impact upon your postgraduate experience. You will be influenced by other academics and students in your department, network and university, and these are all directly related to your physical location.
Conversely, if you spend time in multiple departments you may permanently feel like an outsider, not part of a supportive, academic network. This is a particular challenge for students who do not have a physical ‘home’ or who work off-campus.
Make an informed decision about which university, faculty and department you enrol through as different universities, institutes and departments have unique requirements. Some may require coursework, a thesis and/or creative work, while others may accept a series of bound publications.
And then there are the academic challenges. Supervisors from different disciplines may have very different ideas about the style of your thesis, with varying expectations around focus, argument, structure, language and citations. You must decide which style is best for you.
Discuss how to disseminate your research – who will author the papers and will the choice of journal be driven by impact factors, intended audiences or both?
Authorship issues are also particularly challenging as being first or single author impacts on funding and career opportunities. Some disciplines, such as humanities, commonly use sole authors while others, such as science or economics, tend to use multiple authors.
Choosing thesis examiners is difficult when your topic crosses disciplines. Writing simultaneously for multiple audiences can be complex and confusing. You usually won’t know who your examiners are but your supervisors, who will know, can provide advice about which disciplinary style you should write in.
Other challenges are philosophical. Supervisors will have different perspectives on the purpose of postgraduate research – is it a product or a process?
If your supervisors believe the goal is to produce a thesis, any time away from this fundamental task might be seen as time wasted. But if your supervisors believe your goal is to learn about the academic process, activities for professional and personal development are likely to be more strongly encouraged.
A rare but incredibly difficult challenge is a lack of respect between co-supervisors if they hold different views about research methodologies, such as qualitative versus quantitative research or theoretical versus empirical research. Try to enjoy these debates. Open and frank discussions between supervisors, sometimes without you present, can help to resolve some tension.
Lastly, how much independence should you have? Supervisors must balance directing your research with allowing you freedom. Each supervisor will be slightly different and it will change over time but if it doesn’t feel right, say something.
So why bother with multi-disciplinary research? If you can overcome the challenges of multi-disciplinary research, there will be huge rewards to reap.
You’ll witness a range of supervisory styles and can go to different supervisors at different times, depending on what you need.
You’ll also be well-equipped with skills of negotiation, conflict resolution and diplomacy – requirements of just about any career.
Witnessing and engaging in academic debate across disciplines is of great benefit, especially when it focuses on your work, and will help with future multi-disciplinary collaborations.
Multi-disciplinary students are also exposed to wider academic networks, greater funding options, conference exposure and career opportunities later on.
So stick with it! The rewards are well worth the challenges. From our experience, being open and honest about the clashes that arise along the way is vital. Don’t be afraid to raise these topics for discussion, or even casually leave this article on your supervisors’ desks. Chances are, this is one area where your supervisors are still finding their way as much as you are.

This article was adapted from a paper written by Amy and Rony that was published in the journal Traffic: Nisselle AE, Duncan RE. Multiple supervisors from multiple disciplines: lessons from the past as multi-disciplinary supervision becomes the way of the future. Traffic 2008:10:143-165. Rony Duncan submitted her thesis through the University of Melbourne in 2005. Rony’s doctoral studies were about the ethical implications of predictive genetic testing in young people. Amy Nisselle submitted her thesis through the University of Melbourne in July 2009 and awaits the examiners’ reports with bated breath. Her project investigated how multimedia is used to teach genetics in Australian secondary schools.