Academic Discipline

An academic discipline is a social institution (of researchers) that researches within some subject area.

• AKA: Research Area, Scholarly Subject.
• Context:
  • It can be composed of Subdisciplines.
  • It can refer to Academic Concepts (by academic terms).
  • It can be recognized by an Academic Institution.
  • It can range from being a Theoretical Discipline to being an Applied Discipline.
  • It can range from being a Scientific Discipline/Objective Discipline/Empirical Discipline to being a Subjective Discipline.
  • It can involve a set of related Research Questions that are formally Analyzed and the supporting Institutions.
  • It can be the focus of:
    • an Educational Practice with Courses that aims to disseminate its Field of Knowledge to Students.
    • a Research Practice that aims to advance knowledge (which can be advanced through Research Activity reported in Academic Journals or Academic Conferences).
    • an Applied Practice that aims to apply knowledge.
  • Its Field of Knowledge can be disseminated by Educators.
• Example(s):
  • Computing Science Discipline, with disciplines such as: databases, operating systems, compilers, AI, data mining, and NLP.
  • Mathematics Discipline, with subdisciplines such as: statistics.
  • Biomedicine Discipline.
  • Behavioral Sciences.
  • Social Sciences.
  • Humanities Discipline.
  • a Computing Science Discipline, with subdisciplines: such as machine learning and clustering.
  • …
• Counter-Example(s):
  • an Applied Practice Professional Area/Profession.
    • Data Mining Practice.
    • Legal Practice.
    • Medical Practice.
    • Nursing Practice.
• See: Knowledge Branch, Gravitation, Physics, Expert, Liberal Arts, Systems Theory, Multidisciplinarity, Interdisciplinarity, Transdisciplinarity, Crossdisciplinarity.

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References

2015

• (Wikipedia, 2015) ⇒ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outline_of_academic_disciplines Retrieved:2015-8-2.
  • An academic discipline or field of study is a branch of knowledge that is taught and researched as part of higher education. A scholar's discipline is commonly defined and recognized by the university faculties and learned societies to which he or she belongs and the academic journals in which he or she publishes research. However, there exist no formal criteria for defining an academic discipline.

    Disciplines vary between well-established ones that exist in almost all universities and have well-defined rosters of journals and conferences and nascent ones supported by only a few universities and publications. A discipline may have branches, and these are often called sub-disciplines.

    There is no consensus on how some academic disciplines should be classified (e.g., whether anthropology and linguistics are disciplines of social sciences or fields within the humanities). More generally, the proper criteria for organizing knowledge into disciplines are also open to debate.

• (Wikipedia, 2015) ⇒ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Academic_disciplines Retrieved:2015-8-2.
  • An academic discipline, or field of study, is a branch of knowledge that is taught and researched at the college or university level. Disciplines are defined (in part), and recognized by the academic journals in which research is published, and the learned societies and academic departments or faculties to which their practitioners belong.

2014

• (Wikipedia, 2014) ⇒ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discipline_(academia) Retrieved:2014-6-22.
  • A discipline (or specialism) is knowledge or a concentration in one academic field of study or profession. A discipline incorporates expertise, people, projects, communities, challenges, studies, inquiry, and research areas that are strongly associated with academic areas of study or areas of professional practice. For example, the branches of science are commonly referred to as the scientific disciplines. Gravitation is strongly associated with the discipline of physics, and is considered to be part of that disciplinary knowledge.

    Disciplinary knowledge associated with academic disciplines and professions are referred to as experts or specialists. However generalists are those who may have studied liberal arts or systems theory.

    Closely associated concepts include multidisciplinarity, interdisciplinarity, transdisciplinarity, and crossdisciplinarity, which address problems arising out of the isolation that accompanies the specialization inherent in disciplines. For example, professionals may encounter trouble communicating across disciplines due to specialization of language and concepts.

    Some researchers find that academic disciplines seem to be replaced by what is known as Mode 2 or "post academic science".

2009

• (WordNet, 2009) ⇒ http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=discipline
  • S: (n) discipline, subject, subject area, subject field, field, field of study, study, bailiwick (a branch of knowledge) "in what discipline is his doctorate?"; "teachers should be well trained in their subject"; "anthropology is the study of human beings"

2007

• http://www.elearners.com (2007). http://www.elearners.com/resources/glossary.asp
  • Doctoral Degree - An earned degree carrying the title of doctor. The Doctor of Philosophy degree (Ph.D.) is the highest academic degree and requires mastery within a field of knowledge and demonstrated ability to perform scholarly research.

2003

• (2003). http://www.athabascau.ca/handbook/glossary.htm
  • Discipline. Refers to courses within a specific subject area, for example, English in Humanities, biology in the Sciences, or accounting in Administrative Studies.
  • Major. A major is a designated program of study within an discipline or a field of knowledge.

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