The relationship between academic patenting and scientific publishing in Norway

This paper adds to the growing empirical evidence on the relationship between patenting and publishing among university employees. Data from all Norwegian universities and a broad set of disciplines is used, consisting of confirmed patent inventors and group of peers without patents matched to the inventors by controlling for gender, age, affiliation and position. In general, the findings support earlier investigations concluding that there is a positive relationship between patenting and publishing. There are, however, important differences among fields, universities and possibly types of academic entrepreneurs, underscoring the need to look at nuanced and contextual factors when investigating the effects of patenting.     

A case study of impact of patenting in the current developing economies in Asia

In the current scenario of the global economy and race for the next Asian super power, overall economic strength of the two countries, India and China, is a most debated topic. The future role of intellectual property protection especially in the form of patent system and the growth of industrialization for these two developing economies in ASIA may prove to be crucial over all other assets. In the current development scene of the changing global market supported by intangible asset of inventions protected mainly through the patents is emerging to play an important role. This paper elaborates the statistical research on patents granted/filed in the US Patent and Trade Mark office (US-PTO), PCT of WIPO and in the home countries over last 35 years of aforesaid two Asian countries. It is found that the economic and technological growth of both of the countries may make main difference primarily based on the level of patenting activity by them.     

Is patenting activity impeding the academic performance of South African University researchers?

The present study investigates whether activities related to the patenting of inventions impede or are in conflict with the academic performance of university professors, particularly the publication or the production of public knowledge. The Poisson regression model is used taking into account the confounding effects of other variables deemed to affect the publication productivity, viz.; research/faculty orientation, collaboration, etc. The study is conducted in South Africa, where university R&D is highly funded by the private sector, compared to other countries, viz. USA, UK, Germany, etc. Furthermore, within the South African institutions of learning, there are more incentives to publish than to invent. It is found that: (i) inventiveness and academic performance can co-exist and re-enforce each other, (ii) professors who are inventive have a broader network of researchers-collaborators and (iii) perform highly academically (from the NRF-rating perspective) and publish more than those who do not invent at all.     

Strategic patenting in the upstream oil and gas industry: Assessing the impact of the pre-salt discovery on patent applications in Brazil

For most of its history, Brazil needed to import oil to complement its internal production to supply the internal demand. However, in 2007, the Brazilian Federal Government announced the discovery of huge hydrocarbon resources in the pre-salt layer of the country's Southeastern coast. This study examines the impact of this discovery accomplished by Petróleo Brasileiro S.A. (Petrobras) on patent applications in Brazil associated with upstream oil and gas technologies. Then, this article provides empirical evidence that the pre-salt discovery significantly affected patent strategizing of Multi-Nationals Companies (MNCs) operating in the upstream oil and gas industry, thereby generating a boom in patent filings in Brazil from the official pre-salt announcement onwards.     

Nanomaterials patenting in Brazil: some considerations for the national regulatory framework

Progress on the development of nanotechnology has led to a number of initiatives which serve to normalize activities in this area. Among emerging technologies, nanotechnology is one of the most prominent, and it raises high expectations in a wide range of areas affecting daily life. The risks to human health, the pathways of exposure to nanomaterials, and occupational safety are recent issues which require more attention. The study was performed on nanopatents by collecting, processing and analyzing information extracted from specialized patent databases covering the period from 1991 to 2011, totalling 1,343 patents and representing 36 countries. These patents were classified by the International Patent Classification, using the methodology proposed in a study published by Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, which resulted in six groups of patents, distributed as follows: nanomaterials (40.3 %), medicine and biotechnology (26.6 %), measurement and production (10 %), electronics (2.7 %), energy and the environment (2.2 %), and optical electronics (1 %). Around 17 % of the patents in question did not fall into the adopted classification. The aim of this paper is to analyze the main trends of patenting related to nanotechnology, its development and environmental implications. An additional goal is to assist policy-makers to adjust the regulatory framework on nanotechnology, and to make recommendations for governments, industry, and national organizations, on creating specific subsidies for regulatory framework in Brazil.     

The role of baseline granularity for benchmarking citation impact. The case of CSS profiles

Scientometrics - In this paper we study the effect of granularity on Characteristic Scores and Scales (CSS). Unlike the traditional indicators that are mostly based on means and quantiles, CSS...     

The impact of compulsory helmet legislation on cyclist head injuries in New South Wales,Australia: A response

This article responds to criticisms made in a rejoinder (Accident Analysis and Prevention 2012, 45: 107–109) questioning the validity of a study on the impact of mandatory helmet legislation (MHL) for cyclists in New South Wales, Australia. We systematically address the criticisms through clarification of our methods, extension of the original analysis and discussion of new evidence on the population-level effects of MHL. Extensions of our analysis confirm the original conclusions that MHL had a beneficial effect on head injury rates over and above background trends and changes in cycling participation. The ongoing debate around MHL draws attention away from important ways in which both safety and participation can be improved through investment in well-connected cycling infrastructure, fostering consideration between road users, and adequate legal protection for vulnerable road users. These are the essential elements for providing a cycling environment that encourages participation, with all its health, economic and environmental benefits, while maximising safety.     

The impact of compulsory cycle helmet legislation on cyclist head injuries in New South Wales,Australia: A rejoinder

This paper challenges the conclusion of a recent paper by Walter et al. (Accident Analysis and Prevention 2011, doi:10.1016/j.aap.2011.05.029) reporting that despite numerous data limitations repealing the helmet legislation in Australia could not be justified. This conclusion is not warranted because of the limited time period used in their analysis and the lack of data beyond a few years before the introduction of legislation, the failure to adequately account for the effect of the phasing in of the legislation, the effect of the marked reduction in child cyclists, and the non-comparability of the pedestrian and cycling injuries and related lack of consideration of the severity of head injuries. The extent to which helmet legislation deters people from cycling is discussed.     

The effectiveness of the 'ride-bright' legislation for motorcycles in Singapore

This paper examines the effectiveness of the 'ride-bright' legislation implemented in Singapore in November 1995. The odds ratio test is used to investigate if there is any significant difference in the number of daytime motorcycle accidents by severity before and after the implementation of the legislation. The findings indicate that although there is insignificant change in the number of slight injury accidents, the legislation is effective in reducing the number of fatal and serious injury accidents.     

A comparative study of patenting activity in U.S. and Brazilian scientific institutions

Patents generated from scientific research indicate academic involvement in technology development. Academic patenting activity is recent, even in developed countries. This study compares patenting activity of Brazilian and American universities. Brazilian universities had 29.5-fold increase in applications and 4.01-fold in grants (1990–2001), about twice the increase presented by American universities in this period. However, a significant fraction of Brazilian academic applications are abandoned due to the lack of specialized staff to help in writing and to shepherd the application through the patenting process in universities. The participation of research institutes in technological innovation is increasing steadily, even without financial incentives. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

实验室管理立法:雨来还及时

据国家认监委不完全的统计,我国有各类从事检验检测活动的实验室超过10万家,其中,具有证明作用数据和结果的第三方机构超过2.4万家,从业人员近50万人,每年出具的检验检测报告超过两千万份。这些实验室提供的技术服务渗透在国民经济和人们生产生活的各个角落,是支持社会经济运行和发展的重要技术基础。此次30位人大代表联合提案,呼吁国家为实验室管理立法,是非常必要和及时的。     

A quantitative study on the effectiveness of peer review for academic journals

Peer review is a classic method in the field of quality analysis, but the effectiveness of peer reviewing has never been researched using quantity analysis indicators. A new indicator for academic journals, Effectiveness of Peer Review (EPR), is defined for evaluating the effectiveness of peer reviewing. If the assumption is valid, EPR could be a simple indicator of such effectiveness. In a sample experiment, 28 academic journals were tested, and the EPR indicator was able to reflect accurately the academic impact of those journals.     

Analysis of patenting trends of antifungal drugs in the product patent regime in India

The present study attempts to analyze the patenting activity of antifungal drugs in the pre and post TRIPS period in India. There is a general increase in patent filing in antifungals both by Indian as well as by multinational companies, with greater filing by the latter in the post-TRIPS era. The major filings in the transition and post-TRIPS period have been due to increased product than process patent filings, wherein 75% of the total patent applications in this sector is directed towards product patents and remaining 25% is directed towards process patents. It is observed that Indian academic institutions have been more active than foreign institutions with respect to patent filings in this field.     

The impact of compulsory cycle helmet legislation on cyclist head injuries in New South Wales, Australia

The study aimed to assess the effect of compulsory cycle helmet legislation on cyclist head injuries given the ongoing debate in Australia as to the efficacy of this measure at a population level. We used hospital admissions data from New South Wales, Australia, from a 36 month period centred at the time legislation came into effect. Negative binomial regression of hospital admission counts of head and limb injuries to cyclists were performed to identify differential changes in head and limb injury rates at the time of legislation. Interaction terms were included to allow different trends between injury types and pre- and post-law time periods. To avoid the issue of lack of cyclist exposure data, we assumed equal exposures between head and limb injuries which allowed an arbitrary proxy exposure to be used in the model. As a comparison, analyses were also performed for pedestrian data to identify which of the observed effects were specific to cyclists. In general, the models identified a decreasing trend in injury rates prior to legislation, an increasing trend thereafter and a drop in rates at the time legislation was enacted, all of which were thought to represent background effects in transport safety. Head injury rates decreased significantly more than limb injury rates at the time of legislation among cyclists but not among pedestrians. This additional benefit was attributed to compulsory helmet legislation. Despite numerous data limitations, we identified evidence of a positive effect of compulsory cycle helmet legislation on cyclist head injuries at a population level such that repealing the law cannot be justified.     

Do individual factors matter? A survey of scientists’ patenting in Portuguese public research organisations

This paper addresses scientists’ behaviour regarding the patenting of knowledge produced in universities and other public sector research organisations (PSROs). Recent years have witnessed a rapid growth in patenting and licensing activities by PSROs. We argue that the whole process depends to a certain extent on scientists’ willingness to disclose their inventions. Given this assumption, we conduct research into individual behaviour in order to understand scientists’ views concerning the patenting of their research results. Data from a questionnaire survey of Portuguese researchers from nine PSROs in life sciences and biotechnology is presented and analysed and complemented with in-depth interviews. The results reveal that overall the scientists surveyed show a low propensity to become involved in patenting and licensing activities, despite the fact that the majority had no “ethical” objections to the disclosure of their inventions and the commercial exploitation of these. Perceptions about the impacts of these activities on certain fundamental aspects of knowledge production and dissemination are however divergent. This may account for the low participation levels. Furthermore, most scientists perceived the personal benefits deriving from this type of activity to be low. Similarly, the majority also believed that there are many difficulties associated with the patenting process and that they receive limited support from their organisations, which lack the proper competences and structures to assist with patenting and licensing.     

Collective topical PageRank: a model to evaluate the topic-dependent academic impact of scientific papers

Scientometrics - With the explosive growth of academic writing, it is difficult for researchers to find significant papers in their area of interest. In this paper, we propose a pipeline model,...     

Gender differences in patenting activity: An examination of the US biotechnology industry

The gender gap in science and technology has received considerable attention by both researchers and policy makers. In an effort to better understand the quantity, quality, and underlying characteristics of female research efforts, I integrate three existing databases to uncover how female patenting activities differ from men’s in the US biotechnology industry. Data on how much science the patents build upon, the author institutions of that science, and who funded the papers in which the science appears are all examined. In addition, using the NBER Patent Citation Data Files, I propose a possible gender-based life cycle model for patenting activity. The policy implications of my findings are also discussed.