Crossdisciplinarity describes any method, project and research activity that examines a subject outside the scope of its own discipline without cooperation or integration from other relevant disciplines. In crossdisciplinarity, topics are studied using foreign methodologies of unrelated disciplines.

Crossdisciplinarity is distinctly different from Interdisciplinarity because of the relationship that the disciplines share. Within a crossdisciplinary relationship disciplinary boundaries are crossed but no techniques or ideals are exchanged while Interdisciplinary relationships blend the practices and assumptions of each discipline involved.

Multidisciplinarity is very closely related to crossdisciplinarity because there is no transfer of methodologies or cooperation between the disciplines but different in that 'more than one' other outside discipline examines a specific topic.

See also

• over-disciplinary
• interdisciplinary
• Multidisciplinarity
• systemics
• Transdisciplinarity