The impact of collaboration on research about rural buildings and landscape: A case study in Italy

• Published in: Land use policy Vol. 97; p. 104757
• Main Authors: Ledda, Antonio, Pindozzi, Stefania, Marcheggiani, Ernesto, Cervelli, Elena, De Montis, Andrea, Galli, Andrea
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Kidlington Elsevier Ltd 01.09.2020; Elsevier Science Ltd
• Subjects: Agricultural economics; Agroforestry; Agronomy; Building design; Buildings; Case studies; Collaboration; Cross-fertilization; Ecology; External synergies; Fertilization; Historical buildings; Informatics; Internal synergies; International cooperation; Investigations; Land use; Landscape; Landscape planning; On-line questionnaire; Peers; Research projects; Rural areas; Scientific collaboration; Scientific community; SDS AGR10; Territory, landscape and rural buildings; Italy; Territory, landscape and rural buildings; Scientific collaboration; Internal synergies; On-line questionnaire; SDS AGR10; Research projects; Landscape planning; External synergies
• ISSN: 0264-8377; 1873-5754
• DOI: 10.1016/j.landusepol.2020.104757

•We focus on the role of collaboration in science.•The study attains Italian research in rural buildings and agro-forest land planning.•International collaboration in Italian research projects can be expanded.•Some scholars play a bridging role between many research groups.•This work has the potential to be extended to other domains of national and international science. The importance of collaboration among peers in science is widely investigated: an essential issue is the relevance of credits shared among scholars for the good faith and cooperation in research projects. Despite its significance, so far in Italy the usefulness of collaboration in research activities is not taken in due consideration by both scientific community and research assessment bodies. In this study, the main aim is at investigating the actual up today extent of scientific collaboration among colleagues belonging to the Italian Scientific Disciplinary Sector (SDS) “AGR10 Rural buildings and agro-forest land planning”. We focus on research projects dealing with territory, landscape and rural buildings with the scope of raising consciousness on the key role of collaboration with other SDSs, international institutions or organizations. We harvested data through an on-line questionnaire about several research projects, scrutinized the responses, and found that the core area of current research developed by AGR10 colleagues includes topics concerning the analysis and planning of landscape. Furthermore, we found that the design of international project proposals attains mostly rural buildings and rural heritage analysis, reuse and enhancement, rural buildings and landscape integration, and rural buildings design. While the size of partnerships on international research activities is still limited, as for external synergies the SDS AGR01 ‘Agricultural Economics and Rural Appraisal’ is the most representative, and other SDSs involving ‘Ecology’ and ‘Informatics’ deserve to be mentioned. So, this study has been designed with the secondary aim of stimulating Italian -as well as other international- scientific communities in promoting similar investigations concerning the importance of collaboration and cross-fertilization for successful research activities. As a major output, official national or international research assessment authorities would be provided by a method for better appreciating the usefulness of collaboration and interdisciplinarity.