1. Focus Areas

Interdisciplinary Research welcomes original, methodologically rigorous, and critically informed contributions across a wide range of health-related research areas, including but not limited to the following:

• Integrative Clinical Research and Comparative Effectiveness Clinical investigations examining multidisciplinary treatment strategies, combinations of conventional and traditional interventions, coordinated care pathways, comparative effectiveness, patient-centered outcomes, and complex healthcare interventions. Studies should provide a clear rationale for combining treatment approaches and appropriately evaluate clinical benefits, risks, and limitations.
• Systems Biology and Network Medicine Systems-level investigations of biological processes, disease mechanisms, and therapeutic responses using genomics, proteomics, metabolomics, bioinformatics, computational modeling, and network-based approaches. The section particularly welcomes research that connects molecular or physiological findings with clinically meaningful questions.
• Transcultural and Comparative Health Research Comparative studies of medical knowledge, healthcare practices, patient experiences, health beliefs, and institutional arrangements across cultural and social contexts. Contributions may draw on medicine, medical anthropology, sociology, history, psychology, or other relevant disciplines, using transparent comparative or interpretive methods.
• Public Health, Health Systems, and Policy Integration Research integrating clinical evidence, epidemiology, health economics, public administration, behavioral science, and health policy. Areas of interest include integrated care systems, health services delivery, implementation science, disease prevention, community-based interventions, health inequalities, and evaluation of complex public health programs.
• Digital Health, Artificial Intelligence, and Multimodal Data Interdisciplinary applications of artificial intelligence, machine learning, health informatics, digital platforms, and multimodal data analysis. Relevant studies may combine clinical records, imaging, physiological signals, patient-reported outcomes, and population-level information, with appropriate attention to data quality, model validation, bias, interpretability, privacy, and clinical utility.
• Health Professions Education and Interprofessional Training Research on interdisciplinary medical education, interprofessional collaboration, curriculum design, clinical training, competency development, and educational evaluation. Studies may examine training programs involving conventional medicine, TCM, nursing, pharmacy, public health, or other health professions, with attention to measurable educational outcomes and professional practice.

2. Article Types Accepted

Interdisciplinary Research considers submissions under the article categories established by Health Nexus. The interdisciplinary nature of a study should be demonstrated through its research question, conceptual framework, methodological design, analysis, or integration of findings, rather than assumed solely from the participation of researchers from different disciplines.

• Original Research Articles: Empirical investigations using clinical, experimental, observational, qualitative, quantitative, computational, or mixed-methods designs to address interdisciplinary medical and healthcare questions.
• Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses: Structured syntheses of research evidence concerning interdisciplinary interventions, complex care models, comparative effectiveness, healthcare systems, or related topics.
• Narrative Reviews and Perspectives: Critical evaluations of interdisciplinary research developments, emerging clinical approaches, theoretical debates, public health challenges, and interactions among medical and health-related disciplines.
• Clinical Case Reports: Well-documented individual cases or case series illustrating multidisciplinary diagnosis, complex treatment decisions, coordinated care, or clinically informative interdisciplinary approaches. Reports must discuss limitations and avoid unsupported conclusions about treatment effectiveness.
• Methodological and Theoretical Papers: Contributions developing, evaluating, or critically examining interdisciplinary research frameworks, mixed-methods approaches, complex intervention models, analytical techniques, and theoretical integration.
• Short Communications: Concise reports of focused interdisciplinary findings, preliminary investigations, emerging methodologies, or scientifically relevant observations.
• Editorials and Commentaries: Evidence-informed discussions of interdisciplinary research priorities, healthcare innovations, clinical controversies, and policy developments. These contributions are normally commissioned or approved by the Editorial Office.

Health policy analyses, implementation science studies, educational evaluations, and interdisciplinary case studies may be considered under the relevant article category according to their research design and principal contribution. They do not constitute separate article types unless formally designated by the journal.

Detailed requirements for manuscript preparation, article structure, abstracts, word limits, references, and supplementary materials are provided in the journal's Article Types and Author Guidelines.

3. Section Goals

Interdisciplinary Research aims to support the development of coherent, scientifically rigorous, and socially relevant approaches to complex medical and public health challenges. Its principal objectives are:

• Advance Meaningful Interdisciplinary Collaboration: Encourage research that brings together complementary disciplinary knowledge, methods, and perspectives to address questions that benefit from interdisciplinary investigation.
• Promote Methodological Innovation: Support the development and critical evaluation of research designs capable of examining complex interventions, interacting determinants of health, and multilevel healthcare processes.
• Strengthen the Connection Between Research and Practice: Publish findings that may inform clinical decisions, health services delivery, professional education, and evidence-based public health policy.
• Encourage Cross-Cultural and Scientific Dialogue: Foster constructive scholarly engagement among different medical traditions, scientific disciplines, and cultural perspectives while recognizing their distinct intellectual foundations and methods of inquiry.
• Support Responsible and Equitable Healthcare Innovation: Encourage research addressing clinical safety, healthcare accessibility, population health, technological accountability, health equity, and the responsible implementation of interdisciplinary approaches.

4. Peer Review and Editorial Standards

Manuscripts submitted to Interdisciplinary Research are evaluated under the editorial and publication policies of Health Nexus. The review process emphasizes scientific validity, methodological suitability, interdisciplinary coherence, ethical compliance, and the relevance of research findings to medical knowledge or healthcare practice.

• Initial Editorial Screening: All submissions undergo preliminary editorial assessment for relevance to the section, originality, methodological adequacy, research ethics, reporting quality, and compliance with submission requirements. Manuscripts may be declined without external peer review if they do not meet these standards.
• Double-Blind Peer Review: Research manuscripts selected for external review undergo double-blind peer review, normally involving at least two independent reviewers. Reviewers are appointed according to their expertise in the study's subject matter and methodological approach. Where appropriate, the Editorial Office may invite additional specialists to assess distinct disciplinary components. Editorials and Commentaries may follow the editorial assessment procedures applicable to their category.
• Interdisciplinary Contribution: Authors must identify the disciplines, theoretical perspectives, or methodological approaches relevant to their work and explain how these components contribute to the research question, study design, analysis, or interpretation. Merely combining disciplinary terminology or involving researchers from different fields does not, by itself, establish an interdisciplinary contribution.
• Methodological Coherence: Studies combining quantitative, qualitative, clinical, computational, or other research methods must explain the rationale for their methodological choices. Where multiple methods or datasets are integrated, authors should describe the integration process, analytical assumptions, and limitations.
• Reporting Guidelines: Authors must follow applicable research reporting standards, including CONSORT for randomized controlled trials, STROBE for observational studies, PRISMA for systematic reviews, and CARE for clinical case reports. Additional guidelines relevant to complex interventions, mixed-methods research, diagnostic studies, or prediction models should be followed where appropriate.
• Research Ethics and Clinical Trial Registration: Research involving human participants or animals must comply with applicable ethics review requirements. Clinical trials must be registered in an appropriate publicly accessible registry in accordance with relevant standards. Authors must address informed consent, confidentiality, participant safety, and the handling of adverse events where applicable.
• Digital Research and Data Integrity: Studies involving artificial intelligence, machine learning, or multimodal health data should provide sufficient information concerning data provenance, model development, validation, performance evaluation, potential bias, and limitations. Relevant privacy and data protection requirements must be observed.
• Research Transparency and Reproducibility: Authors must disclose relevant funding, competing interests, data availability, and AI-assisted research or manuscript preparation where required. Supporting materials, analytical procedures, and relevant research documentation should be made available where ethically and legally permissible.
• Evidence-Based Interpretation: Conclusions must be proportionate to the study design, analytical findings, and available evidence. Authors should distinguish empirical findings from theoretical propositions, exploratory interpretations, and policy recommendations. Interdisciplinary relevance does not justify unsupported causal or clinical claims.
• Editorial Independence: Editorial decisions are based on scientific and scholarly merit, methodological quality, ethical compliance, and relevance to the section. Favorable reviewer recommendations do not guarantee acceptance, and the final decision rests with the journal's authorized editors.