Does your institution have measures of interdisciplinary science research success within applicable disciplines?
Yes. Tzu Chi University has institution-level measures of research success that are applicable to interdisciplinary science. The university systematically tracks research projects, journal publications, conference papers, books, research awards, internal grants, and student research projects through its Office of Research and Development. In addition, under the university’s regulations for the establishment and performance management of research centers, research centers are required to submit annual performance reports and are periodically reviewed based on indicators such as internal, inter-university, and international collaboration, publications, patents, service activities, talent cultivation, and future development potential.
These mechanisms provide a structured basis for assessing interdisciplinary science research performance across relevant disciplines. Publicly available institutional statistics also demonstrate multi-year monitoring of research outputs, including annual journal publication data and research award records.
1.1 Bibliometric and Citation Quality Indicators
TCU systematically monitors research performance through internationally recognised bibliometric benchmarks. Based on Web of Science (WOS) data compiled for the period 2004–2009, six of TCU’s academic disciplines ranked among the top 15 institutions in Taiwan. Four of these disciplines placed within the national top five for average Journal Impact Factor (IF) — including Clinical Medicine (2nd nationally), Neuroscience and Behavioural Sciences (2nd nationally), and Psychiatry and Psychology (3rd nationally). These cross-disciplinary rankings reflect the institution’s sustained capacity to produce high-quality research at the intersection of biomedical, neurological, and social-scientific knowledge domains.
1.2 Pure Scholars Institutional Research Repository
TCU participates in the Elsevier Pure Scholars platform, which provides structured, verifiable records of research outputs aligned to institutional contributors. The platform enables tracking of interdisciplinary research across the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) framework — a globally recognised taxonomy of cross-disciplinary impact. This infrastructure offers both internal performance monitoring and external benchmarking capacity.
■ Pure Scholars Platform: Institutional research output tracking and SDG alignment [Link]
1.3 Ministry of Health and Welfare Data Science Sub-Centre
TCU hosts the eastern Taiwan sub-centre of the Ministry of Health and Welfare Health and Welfare Data Science Centre — the first such sub-centre in the eastern Taiwan region. The centre provides institutional researchers with access to large-scale administrative health databases, including the National Health Insurance research database, cancer registries, indigenous population vital statistics, and rare disease notification archives. Research generated through this centre is quantitatively monitored by publication output, grant receipts, and cross-institutional collaboration indices.
1.4 THE Impact Rankings Performance
In the 2025 THE University Impact Rankings, TCU attained global rank 64th for SDG 3 (Good Health and Well-Being) and an overall global rank in the 401–600 band. This sustained impact ranking performance reflects the institution’s capacity to generate internationally recognised outcomes at the intersection of biomedical research, public health, and humanistic medicine — a distinctly interdisciplinary contribution.
1.5 TCU–Academia Sinica Translational Medicine Doctoral Programme
Since 2014, TCU has co-administered a Translational Medicine Doctoral Degree Programme in partnership with Academia Sinica, Taiwan’s premier national research institution. Programme outcomes — including dissertation publications, joint-authorship papers, and technology transfers — constitute explicit performance metrics for interdisciplinary scientific achievement bridging basic biomedical sciences and clinical application.
■ TCU–Academia Sinica Translational Medicine PhD: Programme overview and curriculum [Link]
