Scientific literature cited in USPTO patent documents as indicators for the evaluation and analysis of Spanish scientific research in biomedical disciplines

The use of indicators based on the analysis of the scientific literature cited in patent documents is proposed for the evaluation of biomedical research. A study carried out on several groups of researchers working in universities, public research centers, and hospitals, has shown that an important percentage of Spanish scientists have authored publications that are cited in US patents in the field of Biotechnology. The study and analysis of those cites allows a evaluation of the flow of knowledge generated by the different groups of scientists towards the development of technologies, and to learn on the relationship between the characteristics of the cited publications and the frequency they are cited in the patents. The results obtained avail the use of new indicators based on the cites in patents to perform a more complete evaluation of the published research related with Biotechnology and Biomedicine, both at the level of research institutions and individual scientists.     

Analyzing the time delay between scientific research and technology patents based on the citation distribution model

Promoting knowledge diffusion and reducing the delay between scientific research and technology patents is important to achieve success in the highly competitive global environment. This paper studies the time delay between scientific research and technology patents, and focuses on the key components of time in the promotion of knowledge transformation. Based on United States Patent and Trademark Office patent data, we apply periodical citation distribution models to the patent process. The results show that our transfer function model is better than others, and is suitable for calculating the delay between basic scientific research activities and technology patents.     

The transfer of knowledge from the Spanish public R&D system to the productive sectors in the field of Biotechnology

To determine the capability and resources of the Spanish R & D system to produce knowledge useful for the Biotechnology industries, an analysis of indicators derived from published work, scientific papers cited in US patents and inventions patented, has been carried out. The results show that the number of publications compares well with that of other European countries. The visibility of those publications seems evident as about two thirds of the authors studied have been cited in patents assigned to foreign enterprises, but very few of them have applied for patents. This is analysed in connection with the existing policies.     

The mutually beneficial relationship of patents and scientific literature: topic evolution in nanoscience

Patent and scientific literature are the fundamental sources of innovation in knowledge creation and transfer activities. Establishing and understanding the complex relationships between them can help scientists and stakeholders to predict and promote the innovation process. In this paper, we consider the domain of nanoscience, using a large scale collection of patents and scientific literature to find evolution patterns and distinctive keywords of each topic in a particular period. By extracting the semantic-level topics from a dataset of nearly 810,000 scientific literature from Web of Science and 160,000 patents from Derwent, the results reveal that the degree of topic popularity for both innovative platforms shows a totally different situation during the last 20 years from 1995 to 2015. In addition, the top keywords of patents and scientific literature, representing the topic content of concern, have changed respectively as time went on. Not only our analysis can be used for confirming existing topics in nanoscience, but it also gives new views on the relationship between scientific literature and patents.     

Patents and publications as sources of novel and inventive knowledge

This paper briefly reviews the knowledge-generation process and explores to what degree technical and scientific knowledge from prior art anticipates novelty or the inventive step of an invention. Inventions are novel if they have not been described (in the public) before, and they are inventive if the technical solution was non-obvious to a skilled person in the field. We employ a novel approach of patent citation analysis to investigate this phenomenon. Since in this context common approaches of such citation analysis are biased (usually, citations are neither exhaustive nor relevant in their entirety), we focus on examination reports of European patent applications and the references given therein. Our findings reveal that particularly technical knowledge comprised in patents serves as a source of novelty, while scientific knowledge frequently stems from multiple scientific papers and accounts for the inventive step. In addition, it is found that in many cases scientific knowledge is of commercial relevance and therefore constitutes more than general background information that aids the technical knowledge generation process.     

Indicators for measuring the impact of scientific citations in patents

Scientific publications cited in patents are fundamental elements to assess the transfer of science to technology. Numerous studies evaluate the impact of references in patents and scientific publications and various measurement methods and indicators are proposed. This article reviewed the existing literature on the indicators used to date to determine their suitability and effectiveness to evaluate the impact of patent citations. For this purpose, we analyzed the characteristics of the studies examined and proposed a qualitative classification of indicators from both a technological (patents) and scientific-academic (scientific articles) perspective. Among the results we find that the use of scientometric indicators is primarily focused on analyzing their relevance for patents through the inclusion of scientific citations. Conversely, the same is not true from the academic point of view where gaps still persist in terms of what the impact is when scientific articles are cited in patents. Among the key conclusions is the diversity of proposals to measure scientific citations in patents, though these are conditioned on bibliographic standardization and metadata management of the patents themselves, making it possible to quantify aspects similar to the immediacy index, impact index, or h-index for authors/inventors, albeit from a technological dimension.     

The Spanish experience in the field of technological information

The article describes the new patent information services which are being developed in the Spanish Office following adoption in 1986 of a New Patent Act. The services are largely based on data obtained from the new computer system on which all information concerning applications and documents entering the office is recorded. The services include:

1. a Technical Information Gazette including bibliographic information of granted Spanish patents with an abstract and the most significant drawing;
2. publication of the Industrial Property Official Gazette in paper, microfiche and on magnetic tape;
3. a version in Spanish of the IPC;

online services based on the administrative database SITADEX, bibliographic database of Spanish patents CIBERPAT, a phonetic trademark database INPAMAR, a CLINPAT database containing the complete text in Spanish of the IPC; a LATIPAT database containing bibliographic information of Latin-American patents; and a GRAFMAR database of trademarks in graphics.     

Analysis of the Spanish scientific and technological output in the ICT sector

Summary This study presents a general view of the scientific and technological production in the ICT sector in Spain during the period 1990-2002 and its relative weight in the international production, as well as the identification of the main institutional actors and the performance patterns of the researchers in this scientific community through bibliometric techniques, with the aim of exploring the character of its outputs, both in terms of publications and patents. Indicators at macro-meso level are presented by: geographic regions, thematic areas at different aggregation levels, institutional sectors and research centres. Bibliometric indicators may help focus attention on the position and contribution of Spanish ICT science and technological capabilities.     

In which regions do universities patent and publish more?

The main objective of this contribution is to test whether university patents share common determinants with university publications at regional level. We build some university production functions with 1,519 patents and 180,239 publications for the 17 Spanish autonomous regions (NUTS-2) in a time span of 14 years (1988–2001). We use econometric models to estimate their determinants. Our results suggest that there is little scope for regional policy to compensate the production of patents vs. publications through different university or joint research institutional settings. On the contrary, while patents are more reactive to expenditure on R&D, publications are more responsive to the number of researchers, so the sustained promotion of both will make it compatible for regions their joint production. However, standing out in the generation of both outputs requires costly investment in various inputs.     

Sources of inspiration? Making sense of scientific references in patents

Scientific references in patent documents can be used as indicators signaling science-technology interactions. Whether they reflect a direct ‘knowledge flow’ from science to technology is subject of debate. Based on 33 interviews with inventors at Belgian firms and knowledge-generating institutes active in nanotechnology, biotechnology and life sciences, we analyze the extent to which scientific references in patents reflect sources of inspiration. Our results indicate that scientific knowledge acts as a source of inspiration for about 50 % of the inventions. At the same time, the scientific references cited in patent documents and available in patent databases do not provide an accurate picture in this respect: 30 % of patents that were inspired by scientific knowledge do not contain any scientific references. Moreover, if scientific references are present, half of them are evaluated as unimportant or background information by the inventor. Overall, these observations provide evidence that scientific references in patent documents signal relatedness with the implied inventions without necessarily implying a direct, inspirational, knowledge flow between both activity realms.     

Yesterday’s giants and invisible colleges of today. A study on the ‘knowledge transfer’ scientific domain

Despite ‘knowledge transfer’ emerged as a separate field of study at least three decades ago, its academic literature remains rather fragmented. To reduce complexity, several journals’ special issues have attempted to frame up the literature both in a qualitative way and in a quantitative manner. Although these reviews help to bring some order to a flourishing literature, the theoretical background of knowledge transfer field of study still needs clarification. Who are their foremost scholars? How do they gather in visible or invisible colleges? How far the scientific communities of such domain have evolved over time? Has the knowledge transfer topic gained the status of an independent scientific domain? This article aims at shedding light on the knowledge transfer domain by mapping the invisible colleges on which the discipline is based. Drawing evidence from a network analysis of the backwards citations of the second generation of knowledge transfer studies, the authors point out that although the entire scientific domain has reached a strongly connected international dimension, it still manifests a persistent fragmentation. The paradoxical presence of a popular scientific domain without a proper independent theoretical body is consequently underlined.     

Knowledge-transfer analysis based on co-citation clustering

Based on co-citation cluster analysis, we propose a knowledge-transfer analysis model for any technology field. In this model, patent data with backward citations to non-patent literature and forward citations by later patents would be analyzed. Co-citation clustering of the cited articles defines scientific knowledge sources, while that of the patents themselves defines technology fronts. According to the citation between the article and patent clusters, the landscape of knowledge-transfer including route and strength between scientific knowledge sources and technology fronts can be mapped out. The model has been applied to the field of transgenic rice. As a result of the analysis, ten scientific knowledge sources and eight technology fronts have emerged, and reasonable links between them have been established, which clearly show how knowledge has been transferred in this field.     

Patenting and licensing by Spanish firms: Available survey evidence

This paper presents the results of the OEPM (Spanish Patent and Trademark Office)/OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) survey on the economic and financial uses of patents carried out in 2008 among Spanish business applicants of OEPM patents. It also summarizes evidence from previous surveys. All available information indicates that only a few Spanish firms holding patents license them out. Results from the OEPM/OECD survey also reveal that obtaining public support is the first financial use of patents for Spanish firms. Responses to the same OECD questionnaire by EPO patent applicants from several European countries are quite different: licensing out is an extended practice among EPO patent holders from different countries, including Spain, and convincing venture capitalists and private investors are their two most important financial uses of patents. In our view this suggests that there are significant differences across European countries as regards the development of national technology markets and results from international surveys are driven by responses from the largest and more developed countries. The drivers and actors in markets for patents that only protect inventions nationally may be quite distinct from those in markets for patents that protect inventions regionally, such as EPO patents within Europe.     

Exploring the quality of environmental technology in Europe: evidence from patent citations

In this paper we carry out an empirical analysis to address some questions concerning the production and quality of technology in environmental sectors. The methodology involves patents as a measure of the generation of new knowledge, and patent citations as a proxy for the quality of a technological invention. The sample contains more than 12,000 environmental European patents from firms and government institutions from 1998 to 2004. From our econometric analysis, we found that environmental patents applied by individual inventors present on average less quality that those applied by institutional inventors. The size of family patent is relevant to explain forward patent citation. Furthermore, patents coming from abroad (out of Europe), in particular with US and Japan priority, are more cited on average than local patents (with European priority). Lastly, the specialization in environmental fields of a patent plays a negative role in determining the frequency of forward citation.     

Identifying and tracking scientific and technological knowledge memes from citation networks of publications and patents

Knowledge memes are the cultural equivalent of genes that play an important role in the evolution of knowledge. In this paper, we are trying to identify and tracking scientific and technological knowledge memes, and infer the relationship between science and technology at micro-level. A new carbon nanomaterial—graphene is taken as an example, and publications and patents are used as data sources for the representation of science and technology. Citation networks of publications and patents are constructed, on which a knowledge meme discovery algorithm is used, in order to identify memes that play a key role in the evolution of scientific and technological knowledge. Then the diffusion and co-occurrence of knowledge memes are shown, and a word embedding model is used to track the semantic change of the memes. The research could provide guidance for promoting knowledge innovation and making research policy.     

Significant difference of dependence upon scientific knowledge among different technologies

Summary The authors have constructed an original database of the full text of the Japanese Patent Gazette published since 1994. The database includes not only the front page but also the body text of more than 880,000 granted Japanese patents. By reading the full texts of all 1,500 patent samples, we found that some inventors cite many academic papers in addition to earlier patents in the body texts of their Japanese patents. Using manually extracted academic paper citations and patent citations as “right” answers, we fine-tuned a search algorithm that automatically retrieves cited scientific papers and patents from the entire texts of all the Japanese patents in the database. An academic paper citation in a patent text indicates that the inventor used scientific knowledge in the cited paper when he/she invented the idea codified in the citing patent. The degree of science linkage, as measured by the number of research papers cited in patent documents, is particularly strong in biotechnology. Among other types of technology, those related to photographic-sensitized material, cryptography, optical computing, and speech recognition also show strong science linkage. This suggests that the degree of dependence on scientific knowledge differs from technology to technology and therefore, different ways of university-industry collaboration are necessary for different technology fields.     

An assessment of the impact and visibility of South African journals

Summary Recognizing the critical role played by science and technology in the development of fuel cells, this article aims to characterize the evolution of the S&T knowledge bases of fuel cells over the nineties, using data on patents and scientific publications. The field of fuel cells is particularly heterogeneous. It covers diverse sub-fields that are marked by idiosyncratic characteristics (e.g. actors, demand, and input) and different historical developments. Although this heterogeneity of the field of fuel cells is reflected in the dynamics of S&T knowledge generation within and across its sub-fields too, this article shows that it does not entail the absence of cognitive interrelations between their S&T knowledge bases. For that purpose, the article uses “simultaneous mapping' approach of their S&T knowledge bases by means of textual analysis.     

Spanish Scientific Productivity and Equipment in Magnetic Resonance from a Regional and European Perspective

The aim of this work was to provide a rational frame for the design of scientific policies in MR infrastructure implementation. To this end, we have investigated the relationships between MR instruments, their scientific productivity or medical performance and several socio-economic, R&D or health care indicators in a Spanish and European context. The distribution of MR spectroscopy instruments among Spanish Autonomous Communities suggests that the allocation policy resulted from a compromise between the pull of demand based on regional strength in R&D activities and the push of convergence criteria to bring underdeveloped regions up to a national standard. On the whole, the average value for Spanish MR spectroscopy equipment (1.6 units per TRDP) was within the average value of 1.7 found in 6 European countries. The scientific productivity of these spectrometres in Spain (10.3 publications per unit), compares with the ratio (12.4) found in the United Kingdom and was above the six countries' average (8.3). Larger differences in productivity were observed between Spanish Autonomous Communities, suggesting the existence of important laguna in the distributive side of the allocation policy. Consistent with its socio-sanitary importance, the regional distribution of MR imaging equipment in Spain correlated with the number of sanitary personnel and regional population or wealth. The average number of installed units per million inhabitants in Spain (3.3) is very close to the average found in five European countries and the diagnostic procedures per installed units are close to the 5 countries' average values of 3400/year. However, the scientific productivity of MR imaging equipment in Spain (1.6 publications per installed unit in the five year period) was very low as compared with other European countries (3.7 on average). Higher diagnostic demand or lower publication pressures could explain these differences equally well. Our results suggest that increases in scientific productivity and medical performance of MR instrumentation in Spanish Autonomous Communities may not necessarily involve a net increase in the number of MR instruments but rather, improvements in the global socio-economic throughputs derived from the organisation of R&D and medical service policies.     

Scientific relations between Spain and central-Eastern European countries for the period 1982–1992

This paper analyzes the scientific relationships between Spain and the Eastern European countries (EEc), including the former USSR, from 1982 to 1992. The study considers the number of co-authored papers as well as the number of stays which reflect to the exchange of scientists among them. The total number of co-authored papers of Spanish scientists with their colleagues of those countries is 664 as recorded in theScience Citation Index. During the last three years, a significative increase in the number of co-signed papers has been observed. From the sample considered, the percentage of bilateral and multilateral co-authored papers is 43.8 and 56.2 respectively. In absolute figures, USSR and Poland are the countries with highest number of collaborative papers with Spain. However, in relation to their scientific output, Poland and Hungary show a higher percentage of co-authored papers than the rest of EEc. On the other hand, previous data, provided by the Spanish Secretary of State for Research and Universities (SEUI), related to the flow of scientists on sabbatical year to and from Spain,¹ showed that from 1984 to 1994, a total of 213 researches come from the EEc to Spain, while the number of Spanish scientists going to those countries was extremely scarce.     

Patents cited in the scientific literature: An exploratory study of 'reverse' citation relations

This paper reports on a new approach to study the linkage between science and technology. Unlike most contributions to this area we do not trace citations of scientific literature in patents but explore citations of patents in scientific literature. Our analysis is based on papers recorded in the 1996-2000 annual volumes of the CD-Edition of Science Citation Index (SCI) of the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) and patent data provided by the US Patent and Trademark Office. Almost 30,000 US patents were cited by scientific research papers. We analysed the citation links by scientific fields and technological sectors. Chemistry-related subfields tended to cite patents more than other scientific area. Among technological sectors, chemical clearly dominates followed by drugs and medical patents as the most frequently cited categories. Further analyses included a country-ranking based on inventor-addresses of the cited patents, a more detailed inspection of the ten most cited patents, and an analysis of class-field transfers. The paper concludes with the suggestions for future research. One of them is to compare our 'reverse' citation data with 'regular' patent citation data within the same classification system to see whether citations occur, irrespectively of their directionality, in the same fields of science and technology. Another question is as to how one should interpret reverse citation linkages.