Key trends in interprofessional research: a macrosociological analysis from 1970 to 2010

The field of interprofessional research has grown both in size and in importance since the 1970s. In this paper, we use a macrosociological approach and a Bourdieusian theoretical framework to investigate this growth and the changing nature of the field's research. We investigate publication trends at the aggregate (field) level, using an original dataset of 100,488 interprofessional-related articles published between 1970 and 2010 and recorded in the PubMed database. Articles were coded using a list of 638 codes that were then analyzed thematically and longitudinally. Our results are presented in two main sections. Initially, we consider the growth and reach of the interprofessional field. Second, we explore the five different trends ("terminological issues", "rising management rhetoric", "expansion of psychometrics", "shift from individualism to collectivism" and "emerging issues") that emerged out of our thematic analysis of publications over time. These findings are discussed in the light of Bourdieu's framework to provide an indication of what we argue is a growing legitimacy of the field of interprofessional research as a scholarly domain in its own right.