Category Archives: Research Type

Impacts of an interdisciplinary research center on participant publication and collaboration patterns: A case study of the National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthes

Interdisciplinarity, Research evaluation, Research Examples, Research Type

Interdisciplinary research centers are typically viewed as a vehicle for creating opportunities in science where the intricacy of the research problem calls for persistent collaboration across multiple disciplines. This case study analyzed the effects of an interdisciplinary research center on the publication and collaboration behaviors of faculty affiliated with the center. The study also sought to determine through faculty interviews what factors contributed to these effects for participants whose publication and collaboration behaviors were most changed after affiliation. Results of the study indicate that affiliation with the center has a significant positive effect on participant collaboration activities, and a moderate positive effect on publication activities (i.e. publishing in new fields). Factors contributing to success cited by interviewees included organized leadership, a positive atmosphere, breaking into sub-groups, and the ability to collaborate with researchers with whom they would not have interacted outside of the center. This case study may be useful in providing a framework for early evaluation of the effects of interdisciplinary research centers on affiliated participants.

Author(s): Pamela R Bishop, Schuyler W Huck, Bonnie H Ownley, Jennifer K Richards and Gary J Skolits
Organization(s): University of Tennessee
Source: Research Evaluation
Year: 2014

http://rev.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2014/08/28/reseval.rvu019.abstract

International comparative study on nanofiltration membrane technology based on relevant publications and patents

Research Examples, Research profiling, Research Type,

This study adopts a bibliometric approach to quantitatively assess current research trends in nanofiltration membrane technology (NFM), a new membrane separation technology widely used in various fields. It analyses scientific papers published between 1988–2011 in all journals contained in the Science Citation Index and patent data with the same time span from the Derwent patent database. The study examines developments in basic NFM research and technological innovations. Over the past 24 years, there has been a notable growth in publication outputs. Compared with other countries, China exhibited a rapid growth, particularly from 2000–2011, with its total number of papers ranking second only to the United States (US). Chinese NFM papers focus on energy and agriculture, while the US focuses on biochemistry and molecular biology. China holds the most global NFM patents, with rapid growth in patent numbers from 2005–2011. China, the US and Japan together hold 78 % of the total global NFM patents and have a strong technological advantage in water treatment and separation technology. Although there are four Chinese institutions in the top 10 patentee list, most are application patents that focus on the integrated application of existing nanofiltration membrane. In contrast the patents owned by foreign patentees are mostly research patents involving technology innovations of the nanofiltration membrane itself. Therefore, NFM research capacity in China should be further strengthened to maximize the advantages gained via research to date.

Author(s): Lihua Zhai, Yuntao Pan, Yu Guo, Zheng Ma and Fei Bi
Organization(s): Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China, Zhejiang University
Source: Scientometrics
Year: 2014

http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11192-014-1394-4

Text Mining for Adverse Drug Events: the Promise, Challenges, and State of the Art

novel source, Research Examples, Research Type, Tech mining

Text mining is the computational process of extracting meaningful information from large amounts of unstructured text. It is emerging as a tool to leverage underutilized data sources that can improve pharmacovigilance, including the objective of adverse drug event (ADE) detection and assessment. This article provides an overview of recent advances in pharmacovigilance driven by the application of text mining, and discusses several data sources—such as biomedical literature, clinical narratives, product labeling, social media, and Web search logs—that are amenable to text mining for pharmacovigilance. Given the state of the art, it appears text mining can be applied to extract useful ADE-related information from multiple textual sources. Nonetheless, further research is required to address remaining technical challenges associated with the text mining methodologies, and to conclusively determine the relative contribution of each textual source to improving pharmacovigilance.

Author(s): Rave Harpaz, Alison Callahan, Suzanne Tamang, Yen Low, David Odgers, Sam Finlayson, Kenneth Jung, Paea LePendu and Nigam H. Shah
Organization: Center for Biomedical Informatics Research, Stanford University
Source: Drug Safety
Year: 2014

http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40264-014-0218-z

Patent Analysis of Shale Gas Technology in China and Implications for its Exploitation

Data Type, Patents, Research Examples, Research profiling, Research Type, Strategic planning

China has made significant progress in developing new energy sources such as solar energy and wind power in recent decades. However, commercial exploitation of shale gas in China is in the very early stages, in sharp contrast to that in the United States. Patents related to shale gas exploitation are analyzed by using data mining and patent maps. The findings show that shale gas exploitation involves complex technologies that technological accumulation is a long-term process. Despite decades of rapid growth, significant technology gaps still exist for Chinese enterprises and technological factors could be the bottleneck of China’s exploitation of its massive shale gas resources. Meanwhile, foreign enterprises have applied for a large number of patents in China. Chinese enterprises might have to obtain licenses from foreign patent holders, which could have important implications for shale gas exploitation in China.

Author(s): Mier Zhang, Wei Guo and Zhen Lei
Organization(s): Dalian University of Technology and Pennsylvania State University
Source: Energy Technology
Year: 2014

Comparing methods to extract technical content for technological intelligence

Research Examples, Research Type, Tech mining,

We are developing indicators for the emergence of science and technology (S&T) topics. To do so, we extract information from various S&T information resources. This paper compares alternative ways of consolidating messy sets of key terms [e.g., using Natural Language Processing on abstracts and titles, together with various keyword sets]. Our process includes combinations of stopword removal, fuzzy term matching, association rules, and term commonality weighting. We compare topic modeling to Principal Components Analysis for a test set of 4104 abstract records on Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells. Results suggest potential to enhance understanding regarding technological topics to help track technological emergence.

Author(s): Nils C. Newman, Alan L. Porter, David Newman, Cherie Courseault Trumbach and Stephanie D. Bolan
Organization(s): Georgia Institute of Technology, University of California, University of New Orleans
Source: Journal of Engineering and Technology Management
Year: 2014
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0923474813000556

The global intellectual property landscape of induced pluripotent stem cell technologies

Data Type, Patents, Research Examples, Research profiling, ST&I indicators, ST&I policy

Will freedom to research and innovate be restricted as the induced pluripotent stem cell field advances toward the clinic, or are concerns premature within a rapidly changing ecosystem?

Intellectual property (IP) rights lie at the core of the commercialization process, serving as a powerful incentive to harness the potential of technologies for therapeutic applications. However, when filed inappropriately—with broad or premature claims, for example—or when mismanaged, patents can obstruct vital precompetitive collaborations, dampen investor interest and threaten clinical translation and patient access. Moreover, uncertainties, including those around the validity of claims or the priority of ownership rights, can depress progress.

Although the total number of stem cell patent filings has declined since 2008, patents for iPSC technologies continue to increase8. Analysis of the blistering pace of scientific progress in this area indicates that the growth is unlikely to abate. Widespread concern has been voiced that the emerging ecosystem is becoming burdened by prohibitive and cumulative licensing fees that could restrict scientists’ freedom to research and patients’ equitable access to resulting medical benefits. Although these concerns may be allayed through innovation and industry growth cycles, the upstream production and downstream differentiation of iPSCs into desired cell lineages for application requires numerous interrelated, complex technologies. This distinguishes cellular patents from the evolution of other highly patented industries such as small-molecule drugs and electronics. No single company currently controls the IP for all techniques, methods and reagents required for the production of iPSCs. A global race is underway to establish the most suitable and efficient methods for each of these component technologies.

Author(s): MacKenna Roberts, Ivan B Wall, Ian Bingham, Dominic Icely, Brock Reeve, Kim Bure, Anna French and David A Brindley
Organization(s): Oxford–University College London Centre for the Advancement of Sustainable Medical Innovation, University of Oxford
Source: Nature Biotechnology
Year: 2014

http://www.nature.com/nbt/journal/v32/n8/full/nbt.2975.html

Current performance and future trends in health care sciences and services research

Research Examples, Research profiling, Research Type

Health care sciences and services research (HCSSR) has come to the fore in recent years and related research literature increased rapidly over the last few decades. The main purpose of this study is to describe the global progress and to determine the current trends on HCSSR by using a scientometrics approach to survey related literature in the Web of Science database from 1900 to 2012. The document types, languages, publication patterns, subject categories, journals, geographic and institutional distributions, top cited articles, and the distribution of keywords were thoroughly examined. The results show that HCSSR has increased rapidly over the past 20 years, most notably in the last decade. In total, there are currently 128,728 research articles in 156 journals listed in 39 WoS subject categories. The top 20 most productive countries, and institutions were analyzed in detail, and 11 frequently cited papers and research foci were identified based on citation analysis. HCSSR spans many disciplines and focuses mainly on public, environmental & occupational health and education educational research. Medical Care, Academic Medicine, Health Affairs and Journal of School Health are the core journals with both high quantity and quality. High-income countries make up the leading nations, especially G7 countries. Meanwhile, “emerging economies” are also increasingly engaging this field. American and Canadian institutions have made greater advances in productions, citations, and cooperation, with stronger and better development prospects overall. The hot topics include internet use and decision making in health care, palliative care and end of life research, health status and quality of life, quality of healthcare and patient’s satisfaction, medical education, and health communication. Also, most researchers tend to study health care sciences based on the topics of quality-of-life assessment, and their interest in quality-of-life measures has increased. Increasing attention has been paid to the developing countries, especially “emerging economies” like China. Although health research has made much progress, many questions still remain unanswered and there are few assessments of how well research systems carry out their essential functions. Hence, there is currently an urgent need for timely establishment of an effective health research system.

Author(s): Qiang Yao, Peng-Hui Lyu, Lian-Ping Yang, Lan Yao, Zhi-Yong Liu
Organization(s): Huazhong University of Science and Technology and Wuhan University
Source: Scientometrics
Year: 2014

http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11192-014-1383-7

Analyzing patent topical information to identify technology pathways and potential opportunities

Future-oriented technology analysis, Research Examples, Research Type

As a basic knowledge resource, patents play an important role in identifying technology development trends and opportunities, especially for emerging technologies. However patent mining is restricted and even incomplete, because of the obscure descriptions provided in patent text. In this paper, we conduct an empirical study to try out alternative methods with Derwent Innovation Index data. Our case study focuses on nano-enabled drug delivery (NEDD) which is a very active emerging biomedical technology, encompassing several distinct technology spaces. We explore different ways to enhance topical intelligence from patent compilations. We further analyze extracted topical terms to identify potential innovation pathways and technology opportunities in NEDD.

Author(s): Jing Ma and  Alan L. Porter
Organization(s): Beijing Institute of Technology and Georgia Institute of Technology
Source: Scientometrics
Year: 2014

http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11192-014-1392-6

Feature report on China: a bibliometric analysis of China-related articles

Research Examples, Research profiling, Research Type

China’s rise in science has been widely acknowledged. Yet we know little empirically about academic research focusing on China. Utilizing a uniquely constructed large-scale dataset, this paper explores China-related publications through bibliometric analysis. Our data suggests that not only interest in China but also knowledge about China has developed rapidly over the years. Despite an increasingly diverse profile of participants, the substantial rise of research focusing on China is largely limited to affluent regions and some geographically proximate neighbors of China. The research discloses that overseas Chinese facilitate academic research focusing on China. The research foci of China-related studies have gradually shifted from social science to natural science and, in more recent years, to Chinese environmental issues, public health and economy.

Author(s): Weishu Liu, Li Tang, Mengdi Gu and Guangyuan Hu
Organization(s): Shanghai Jiao Tong University and Shanghai University of Finance and Economics
Source: Scientometrics
Year: 2014

http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11192-014-1371-y

Interdisciplinarity among Academic Scientists: Individual and Organizational Factors

Interdisciplinarity, Research Examples, Research Type

Today when interdisciplinary research (IDR) is becoming increasingly important
in generating innovative research results and solving complex problems in academia,
discussions of IDR antecedents, processes and outcomes are becoming increasingly
important in research policy and sociology of science. This study addresses two primary
questions: 1) what individual and organizational factors affect academic scientists’
engagement in IDR, 2) what the effects of these factors are in difference disciplines.
Drawing on a wide variety of social science theories including studies of academic tenure
system, organizational climate theory, theories about women and gender in science and
scientific and technical human capital theory, it develops four hypotheses to investigate
the effects of tenure system, university climate for IDR, gender, and industry experience
on the degree to which individual scientists engage in IDR.

Author(s): Fang Xiao
Organization(s): Georgia State University
Source: Dissertation, Georgia State University
Year: 2014

http://scholarworks.gsu.edu/pmap_diss/50