The relationship between interdisciplinarity and citation impact—a novel perspective on citation accumulation

Interdisciplinary research is of significance for creating breakthroughs and facilitating innovations and may achieve higher citation impact, although contrary results still exist. The current study looks into the relationship between interdisciplinarity and citation impact from a brand-new perspective—the process of citation accumulation—by exploring how interdisciplinarity, as measured by Rao-Stirling and DIV, affects the accumulating process of citations, based on scientific papers published by Chinese or US authors in 2009–2011 in Chemistry. Two metrics are used to measure how long it takes for a paper to reach its citation peak (PEAK_YEAR) and how sustainable the citation impact remains after the peak (SUS). The results show that compared with Rao-Stirling, DIV is more sensitive to the length of the citation window and more closely aligned with the nature of interdisciplinarity. In Chemistry, higher interdisciplinarity is more likely to encounter delayed recognition and greater citation sustainability, which may explain the inconsistency in the relationship between interdisciplinarity and citation impact. In conclusion, it is necessary to consider the length of the citation window when explaining the relationship between interdisciplinarity and citation impact. A longer citation window may be a better solution, as an alternative or supplement, in assessing the academic performance of interdisciplinary research.