A surname-based patent-related indicator: the contribution of Jewish inventors to US patents

It was found that the surname-based representation of Jewish authors in the top US biomedical journals corresponds to the representation of Jewish Nobel Laureates in Medicine among US laureates: Both of them are almost equally disproportionately high, with the ratio of actual to expected number close to 20 (Kissin, Scientometrics 89:273–280, 2011). The main aim of this study was to determine whether the contribution of Jewish inventors is also disproportionately high. The number of patents (US Patent and Trademark Office database) per thousand persons with the same surname (2000 Census) was determined (index P). Index P was compared with index A, which represents the number of the articles in the top US biomedical journals, and index G, which is based on the representation of a surname in the Google’s option “Discussions”, reflecting a combination of various business and leisure activities (designed as a negative control). The collective contributions of the 96 Jewish surname groups for each of the above indices were calculated. The ratio of actual to expected number of US patents was found to be disproportionately high—6.1 (p < 0.0001). At the same time, this disproportionality was four-fold lower than that related to biomedical articles (ratio of 6.1 vs. 23.3, p < 0.0001). There was some degree of correlation between index P and index A (r = 0.407, p < 0.0001), but no significant correlation was found between index P and index G. The role of various factors in the observed disproportionalities is discussed. The greater degree of disproportionality with biomedical research articles might be a consequence of traditional Jewish inclination towards occupations in medicine.