Do references in transferred patent documents signal learning opportunities for the receiving firms?

In this study, we empirically investigate the role of references in patents in a firm’s technological learning and innovation when the patents are transferred (i.e., technology licensing activities) to these firms. This study is based on a sample of 68 Chinese high-tech firms that engaged in patent technology licensing while using a matching sample of non-licensee firms, and it examines covered patents in licensee agreements that were originally registered in the European Patent Office between 2000 and 2005. Empirical results indicate that the reference scope (defined as the number of different patent classes—classes that the examined patent does not belong to—in the backward citations) and the time lag of the backward citations each has a positive effect and a negative effect on the licensee firms’ innovation outcomes respectively, measured as the number of Chinese patent applications during the 5 years after the licensing year. However, it failed to find a positive effect of the science-based citations (defined as backward citations to journal articles) as we predicted.     

How many scientific papers are mentioned in policy-related documents? An empirical investigation using Web of Science and Altmetric data

In this short communication, we provide an overview of a relatively newly provided source of altmetrics data which could possibly be used for societal impact measurements in scientometrics. Recently, Altmetric—a start-up providing publication level metrics—started to make data for publications available which have been mentioned in policy-related documents. Using data from Altmetric, we study how many papers indexed in the Web of Science (WoS) are mentioned in policy-related documents. We find that less than 0.5% of the papers published in different subject categories are mentioned at least once in policy-related documents. Based on our results, we recommend that the analysis of (WoS) publications with at least one policy-related mention is repeated regularly (annually) in order to check the usefulness of the data. Mentions in policy-related documents should not be used for impact measurement until new policy-related sites are tracked.     

Standards, documents of relevance and directives in individual monitoring: is European individual monitoring in compliance with standards?

Individual monitoring services (IMS) in Europe do not comply with the same legal or approval requirements. Anyway, a degree of harmonisation existing in individual monitoring practices in Europe has been achieved mainly thanks to documents as standards or international recommendations, which with different weight represent invaluable vehicles of condensed information transfer. However, implementation of standards is not straightforward and harmonisation is not directly a consequence. Somehow, 'harmony' is needed also in standards: IEC and ISO standards, on performance requirements for dosemeters sometimes have different approaches (i.e. performance criteria). Moreover, standards do not all refer to reliability, and therefore being in compliance with standards does not by itself assure that dose results are reliable. Standards are not the only reference documents for an IMS. EURADOS working group on 'Harmonisation of Individual Monitoring in Europe', who has been active in the years 2001-2004, suggested a classification of publication on individual monitoring, distinguishing between standards and documents of relevance, which can be both national and international. None of the two categories are mandatory unless specified in legislation. The Council Directive 96/29/EURATOM and its implementation in each EU Member States has fostered harmonisation of the approach (i.e. approval of dosimetric services) and of the reference quantities for individual monitoring within EU, but national legislation still allow substantial differences in individual monitoring from country to country.     

A comparison of three multidisciplinarity indices based on the diversity of Scopus subject areas of authors’ documents,their bibliography and their citing papers

Scientometrics - In this paper, we compare the distribution of Elsevier Scopus subject areas of authors’ documents, their bibliographical references and their citing documents. We compute the...     

Relationship among research collaboration, number of documents and number of citations: a case study in Spanish computer science production in 2000–2009

This paper analyzes the relationship among research collaboration, number of documents and number of citations of computer science research activity. It analyzes the number of documents and citations and how they vary by number of authors. They are also analyzed (according to author set cardinality) under different circumstances, that is, when documents are written in different types of collaboration, when documents are published in different document types, when documents are published in different computer science subdisciplines, and, finally, when documents are published by journals with different impact factor quartiles. To investigate the above relationships, this paper analyzes the publications listed in the Web of Science and produced by active Spanish university professors between 2000 and 2009, working in the computer science field. Analyzing all documents, we show that the highest percentage of documents are published by three authors, whereas single-authored documents account for the lowest percentage. By number of citations, there is no positive association between the author cardinality and citation impact. Statistical tests show that documents written by two authors receive more citations per document and year than documents published by more authors. In contrast, results do not show statistically significant differences between documents published by two authors and one author. The research findings suggest that international collaboration results on average in publications with higher citation rates than national and institutional collaborations. We also find differences regarding citation rates between journals and conferences, across different computer science subdisciplines and journal quartiles as expected. Finally, our impression is that the collaborative level (number of authors per document) will increase in the coming years, and documents published by three or four authors will be the trend in computer science literature.     

Software review: The JATSdecoder package—extract metadata,abstract and sectioned text from NISO-JATS coded XML documents; Insights to PubMed central’s open access database

Scientometrics - JATSdecoder is a general toolbox which facilitates text extraction and analytical tasks on NISO-JATS coded XML documents. Its function JATSdecoder() outputs metadata, the abstract,...