Discipline Integration Paper: integrating two fields
Write a 3,800–4,400-word research paper on an interdisciplinary studies topic that integrates your two areas of study, choosing a topic relevant to your fields and useful to your career or further education, with the title page, bibliography and citations excluded from the count.
Editorial process
Last reviewed · August 14, 2026
Multidisciplinary is not interdisciplinary
The distinction this course is built on is the one your paper will be graded against: a multidisciplinary paper puts two disciplines side by side and lets each speak in turn, while an interdisciplinary paper produces a more comprehensive understanding that neither could have reached alone. Klein and Newell's widely used definition frames interdisciplinary studies as answering a question or addressing a topic too broad or complex for a single discipline, drawing on disciplinary insights and integrating them. The practical test is whether your conclusion could have been written by either field on its own. If it could, you have written a survey. Choose a topic accordingly: pick a problem that visibly resists one discipline, where the two fields disagree about what counts as evidence, or where one field's method answers a question the other could only pose. That disagreement is the raw material for integration, not an obstacle.
The integration itself has a procedure worth following rather than hoping for. Work out what each discipline assumes, what it counts as data, and what vocabulary it uses; find where those assumptions conflict; then build a common ground by redefining a term, extending an assumption, or organising both under a shared concept, which is what the literature means by finding a common language. Say in the paper what you did, because making the integrative move explicit is what an assessor is looking for. At this length, structure carries a lot of weight: roughly four thousand words needs a clear problem statement, a section establishing each discipline's contribution, an explicit integration section, and a conclusion that states the more comprehensive understanding you reached. The brief also asks the topic to be useful to your career or further education, so choose something you would actually want to have written.
Likely learning objectives
Inferred from the brief — check these against your own rubric.
- 01Distinguish multidisciplinary juxtaposition from interdisciplinary integration.
- 02Select a problem that genuinely resists a single-discipline answer.
- 03Identify each discipline's assumptions, evidence standards and vocabulary.
- 04Construct common ground between conflicting disciplinary assumptions.
- 05Sustain an argument at four thousand words with a clear integrative structure.
Read the full question
Review every instruction before using the planning guidance that follows.
Turn the brief into deliverables
- 01A topic that integrates your two named areas of study.
- 02A statement of the problem and why one discipline cannot answer it.
- 03Each discipline's contribution, on its own terms.
- 04An explicit integration of the two, with the integrative move named.
- 05A conclusion stating the more comprehensive understanding reached.
- 063,800–4,400 words excluding title page, bibliography and citations, with full citations.
Choose a problem neither discipline can solve alone
The problem and why it needs two disciplines
State the topic and show that one field cannot resolve it.
Discipline one's contribution
Present what the first field knows, on its own terms and vocabulary.
Discipline two's contribution
Do the same for the second field, including where it diverges.
Where the two conflict
Identify conflicting assumptions, methods or evidence standards.
Building common ground
Redefine, extend or reorganise to create a shared basis, and say so.
The more comprehensive understanding
State the conclusion the integration produced and its use to your field.
Reading in both fields, and in integration itself
Recommended databases
- Your university library's databases for both disciplines
- Issues in Interdisciplinary Studies
- JSTOR
- Google Scholar
- Repko, Interdisciplinary Research: Process and Theory
Search sequence
- 1.Write the problem as a question and check that one discipline cannot answer it.
- 2.Read a process account of interdisciplinary integration before drafting.
- 3.Search each discipline separately, keeping their vocabularies apart in your notes.
- 4.List the points where the two literatures disagree.
- 5.Decide your integrative technique — redefinition, extension or reorganisation — before writing.
Reference shortlist
These are authoritative starting points, not a ready-made bibliography. A qualified reviewer must confirm that each source fits the assignment and supports the claim beside which it is cited.
Nothing here is cleared for citation until you have read it.
- 01
About Interdisciplinary Studies
Association for Interdisciplinary Studies · 2024
The field's own account of what integration means, which is the graded criterion here.
- 02
Facilitating Interdisciplinary Research
National Academies Press · 2005
The National Academies definition the assignment's own background material quotes.
- 03
Crossing the Quality Chasm: A New Health System for the 21st Century
Institute of Medicine, NCBI Bookshelf · 2001
A worked example of a report that integrates several disciplines around one problem rather than surveying them.
- 04
Qualitative Study
StatPearls, NCBI Bookshelf · 2023
Sets out one discipline's evidence standards explicitly, which is what the conflict section has to compare.
Review before submission
Common mistakes
- Choosing a topic broad enough that both disciplines simply describe it in turn.
- Writing two literature reviews and calling their adjacency integration.
- Leaving the integrative move implicit, so the assessor cannot see it happen.
- Ignoring where the disciplines disagree, which is where the work actually is.
- Counting the bibliography toward the word count, which the brief excludes.
- Picking a topic with no bearing on your career, when the brief asks for one that has.
Submission checklist
- Both areas of study are named and both are load-bearing.
- The problem is stated as one a single discipline cannot resolve.
- Disciplinary assumptions and evidence standards are made explicit.
- An integration section names what was done to combine them.
- The conclusion could not have been written by either discipline alone.
- The word count is 3,800–4,400 excluding front and back matter.
Use this guide to plan and review your own work. Follow your institution's rules and read our academic-integrity policy.
Written by
Aaron Bishop
MA, Education
assignment interpretation and research-methods coaching across disciplines
Aaron leads the EssayCrackers editorial desk. He works on how assignment briefs are read — what a rubric is actually asking for, and where students most often answer a different question than the one set.
Reviewed by
Dr. Nathan Cole
PhD, Rhetoric & Composition
Argumentation and thesis development
Nathan teaches first-year composition and directs a university writing center. He reviews EssayCrackers guides for argumentative soundness and citation accuracy.