This paper investigates the relationship between science convergence and research impact in affective and cognitive sciences. Analyzing over half a million publications from PubMed, the study finds that affectivism (research focusing on emotions and affect) yields higher impact than cognitivism (neglecting affect). This higher impact is strongly associated with higher multidisciplinarity in the citations of affectivism publications, but lower multidisciplinarity within the publications themselves. The research suggests that impactful research can stem from focused content with broad value, driving downstream convergence.

Vitalii Zhukov, Alexander M. Petersen, Daniel Dukes, David Sander, Panagiotis Tsiamyrtzis, Ioannis Pavlidis