Introduction: Human-animal interactions (HAI) research spans many disciplines, including psychology, education, veterinary medicine, human medicine, nursing, and social work.1,2 The objective of this study is to quantify the degree to which Anthrozoos articles represent this diversity of knowledge domains. For the purpose of this study, multidisciplinarity will be described through an analysis of the subjects represented by the journals most frequently referenced in Anthrozoos articles, the subjects represented by the journals in which articles cite Anthrozoos articles most frequently, and by the institutional affiliations of the authors of the 100 most highly cited Anthrozoos articles.
Methodology: This study is a retrospective bibliometric study. The data set included citations, abstracts, and other metadata for Anthrozoos research articles from 1992-2017 which were downloaded from bibliographic database Web of Science Core Collection (WOSCC). WOSCC was selected because it comprehensively indexes Anthrozoos from 1992 to the present; it includes some information that other databases omit, such as references lists and times cited; and its records can be uploaded to VantagePoint, a standalone text mining software that provides analyses of structured data without requiring extensive programming skills.
Main Results: Anthrozoos's multidisciplinarity is recognized by the research domains WOSCC applies to it: Anthropology, Environmental Sciences & Ecology; Sociology; and Veterinary Sciences; most journals are assigned only one or two research domains. urther, Anthrozoos itself is the journal most frequently referenced by its own articles. Analysis of cited references indicates that the research domains of the other journals most frequently cited by Anthrozoos articles include psychology, veterinary sciences, and behavioral sciences. Anthrozoos was also the journal that most cited its own articles, followed by journals in veterinary sciences, psychology, and behavioral sciences, with criminology & penology trailing these leaders. Examining the author affiliations of the 100 most highly cited papers, the disciplines most often represented are psychology and veterinary medicine, but there is definite representation from other life sciences and social sciences disciplines, as well as government agencies, research institutes, corporate collaborators, and other nonacademic organizations. Collaboration patterns are both international and interdisciplinary.
Conclusions: There is evidence that researchers from many disciplines study HAI, and these disciplines are dominated by veterinary medicine, psychology, and behavioral sciences. As multi- and interdisciplinarity become increasingly valued in scientific research3, HAI seems to be uniquely poised to demonstrate to other disciplines how it is done.