Collaborative Research Trends between Clinical Psychology and Speech-Language-Hearing Disciplines in India

This study looks into the nature or extent of research collaboration between the disciplines of clinical psychology and speech-language-hearing in India. It covers a purposive sample of 90 from 710 published research papers on designated areas of psychosocial difficulties that appeared in all prior volumes of an indexed national journal for an equal number of years. A collaboration index based on the frequency, trend, or pattern of authorship for research contributions within the indicated timelines was also created, as well as a qualitative examination of common research interests across the two fields. Multiple authorships in the same profession indicate teamwork, and those with other professions are deemed true collaboration. The findings indicate that two-thirds of surveyed research papers are published by single authors (67.77%), leaving <1% of the publications by 3-4 authors. While the frequency of one paper by one author is high, with low collaboration indices (CI: 0.322), a review of mutual research interests reveals that stuttering, prevalence data for communication disorders, test development, re-validation, and norm revision are the most often explored topics. Before concluding on the need for developing a problem-focused multi-authorship agenda for research in the near future, the merits, demerits, and common hurdles to inter-disciplinary collaboration are examined.