Open Access 03-02-2025 | Research
Scientific relevance and affinity in the declarations of the groups and academic disciplines in physical exercise and sport sciences
Published in: Sport Sciences for Health
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Purpose
In Italy, following the definition of scientific-disciplinary groups (SDG) and the update of academic disciplines (AD) with their respective declarations, a significant legislative change occurred. This led to the merging of the two ADs of Physical Training Sciences and Methodology (code M-EDF/01) and Sport Sciences and Methodology (code M-EDF/02) into a single SDG called Physical Exercise and Sport Sciences. Consequently, there should be full scientific autonomy for this new SDG. However, residual interference from the former related ADs persists, which is now redundant, since the new SDG encompasses all relevant affinities. Therefore, other ADs and SDGs should not reference the SDG and ADs titles of Physical Exercise and Sport Sciences in their declarations. The study aimed to verify if there were any duplications compared to the previous university body, to what extent these duplications existed, and to identify the specific instances of duplication.
Methods
A textual analysis of the scientific declarations of the 190 SDGs and 383 ADs was conducted in comparison with the corresponding previous declarations of the academic recruitment fields (ARF) and ADs. The analysis was conducted using specific keywords.
Results
The analysis of Ministerial Decree (DM) n. 639 of 2024 found that the keyword “Sport” is present in 21 SDGs and 23 ADs, ranging from zoology and physiology to aerospace engineering and law. For “Physical training or education or exercise”, 7 SDGs and 6 ADs were identified, including musculoskeletal system diseases, cellular biology, and special education. Compared with the DM n. 885 of 2000, the keyword “Sport” appears in 15 ARFs and 10 ADs, while “Physical training or education or exercise” appears in 13 ARFs and 9 ADs, in similar areas.
Conclusions
The overlaps in the scientific declarations of the 180 SDGs and the 383 ADs were supposed to decrease due to their unique scientific, cultural, and educational relevance and affinity; instead, they have increased. Similarly, this occurred with the updated declarations of the ADs. An even more concerning aspect is that the declaration of SDG in Area 11 of Historical, Philosophical, Pedagogical and Psychological Sciences contains a significant overlap between the SDG of Educational research, teaching, special pedagogy, and experimental pedagogy (code 11/PAED-02) and the SDG of Physical Exercise and Sport Sciences (code 06/MEDF-01), perpetuating the current confusion.