Transdisciplinary research: characteristics, quandaries and quality

There is a shifting landscape for knowledge generation in contemporary societies that suggests a bright future for transdisciplinary (TD) research. Interestingly, however, there is currently no clear consensus on what transdisciplinarity is or how its quality can be evaluated. This paper uses three avenues to advance and clarify our understanding of transdisciplinarity. Firstly, we survey the theoretical literature and identify key characteristics used by authors in the field to distinguish transdisciplinarity from related research approaches. These characteristics are problem focus, evolving methodology and collaboration. In our discussion of these we highlight variations in description that have significance for practice. Secondly, we explore three interesting quandaries that transdisciplinary researchers face (integration, reflection and paradox) discussing how these quandaries manifest in different dimensions and their potential as both challenge and opportunity for practice. Finally, we use our synthesised characteristics and challenges to shape two alternative frameworks for evaluating the quality of TD endeavours. Our first framework is based on strategic questioning and is potentially useful to individuals seeking to improve the quality of their work. Our second framework adapts an existing quality schema to the unique challenges of transdisciplinarity and may be more appealing to those seeking to compare TD research projects.