There is a call for more transdisciplinary (TD) research, from academia, society, and funding agencies. Consequently, the field of TD research is searching for ways of proving the value and providing evidence to support the effectiveness of such research. The main challenge for evaluating TD research is attribution, that is how to link societal change to the TD research process. However, little attention has been paid to the relationship between the quality of the research process and the effects and impacts that are being evaluated. Building upon earlier attempts at evaluating TD research, this article tests three key aspects of effective sustainability research: its relevance, credibility, and legitimacy. To explore the link between the quality of process and societal effects, we analyze and compare outputs, outcomes, and impact of five TD projects. Overall, our analysis shows that while relevance, credibility, and legitimacy gave important insights regarding the links between process and impacts, they are not adequate for evaluating TD research impact. Process qualities such as practitioner motivation and perceived importance of the project, together with breadth of perspectives, the openness/flexibility of participants, and in-depth exchanges of expertise and knowledge, contributed to producing internally relevant, credible, and legitimate results. However, we also saw a need to develop the relevance, credibility, and legitimacy framework, in relation to the external dynamics of the project process, heterogeneous stakeholder groups, and the credibility of practice-based knowledge, which together with institutional factors and the political context significantly shape the possibility of impact.

中文翻译：

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评估跨学科研究的影响：相关性，可信度和合法性对于理解过程与影响之间的联系的有用性

学术界，社会和资助机构呼吁进行更多的跨学科（TD）研究。因此，TD研究领域正在寻找证明价值并提供证据以支持此类研究有效性的方法。评估TD研究的主要挑战是归因，即如何将社会变化与TD研究过程联系起来。但是，很少关注研究过程的质量与所评估的效果和影响之间的关系。在评估TD研究的早期尝试的基础上，本文测试了有效的可持续性研究的三个关键方面：相关性，可信性和合法性。为了探索流程质量与社会效应之间的联系，我们分析并比较了产出，结果，和五个TD项目的影响。总体而言，我们的分析表明，尽管相关性，可信度和合法性对过程与影响之间的联系提供了重要的见解，但它们不足以评估TD研究的影响。过程质量，例如从业者的动机和项目的重要性，以及观点的广度，参与者的开放性/灵活性以及专业知识和知识的深入交流，有助于产生内部相关的，可信的和合法的结果。但是，我们还发现有必要针对项目流程的外部动力，不同利益相关者群体以及基于实践的知识的信誉，开发相关性，可信度和合法性框架，