Discipline Diversity Index

For the purpose of evaluating the diversity of the disciplines inolved in the conceptual clarificacion, we rely on the 67 glossaLAB's Knowledge Domain categories (KD) referred to in the article devoted to the matter.

Definition

Taking N as the number of considered KD, the diversity of participating disciplines is determined using Shannon Diversity Index weighted by the maximal value of diversity, which is attained by an equal participation of all the KD, that is $\log _{2}N$. After normalization, the diversity index of an equalized participation of all the KD is 1, while for a single participant KD is 0. In general, the more KD and the more equal the participation, the index is closer to 1.

Accordingly, calling $p_{i}$ the frequency of occurrence of a contribution from the $KD_{i}$, we define the normalised diversity index as:

$DI={\frac {1}{\log _{2}N}}\sum _{i=1}^{N}p_{i}\log _{2}\left({\frac {1}{p_{i}}}\right)$

Application

The categorisation of contents, particularly in collections (in which specific interdisciplinary elucidations are substantiated and grouped), enables the assessment of the diversity achieved within the framework of specific conceptual clarification processes, or in glossaLAB altogether.