When does centrality matter? Scientific productivity and the moderating role of research specialization and cross-community ties

The present study addresses the ongoing debate concerning academic scientific productivity. Specifically, given the increasing number of collaborations in academia and the crucial role networks play in knowledge creation, we investigate the extent to which building social capital within the academic community represents a valuable resource for a scientist's knowledge-creation process. We measure the social capital in terms of structural position within the academic collaborative network. Furthermore, we analyse the extent to which an academic scientist's research specialization and ties that cross-community boundaries act as moderators of the aforementioned relationship. Empirical results derived from an analysis of an Italian academic community from 2001 to 2008 suggest academic scientists that build social capital by occupying central positions in the community outperform their more isolated colleagues. However, scientific productivity declines beyond a certain threshold value of centrality, hence revealing the existence of an inverted U-shaped relationship. This relationship is negatively moderated by the extent to which an academic focuses research activities in few scientific knowledge domains, whereas it is positively moderated by the number of cross-community ties established

Determinants of patent citations in biotechnology: An analysis of patent influence across the industrial and organizational boundaries

The present paper extends the literature investigating key drivers leading certain patents to exert a stronger influence on the subsequent technological developments (inventions) than other ones. We investigated six key determinants, as (i) the use of scientific knowledge, (ii) the breadth of the technological base, (iii) the existence of collaboration in patent development, (iv) the number of claims, (v) the scope, and (vi) the novelty, and how the effect of these determinants varies when patent influence—as measured by the number of forward citations the patent received—is distinguished as within and across the industrial and organizational boundaries. We conducted an empirical analysis on a sample of 5671 patents granted to 293 US biotechnology firms from 1976 to 2003. Results reveal that the contribution of the determinants to patent influence differs across the domains that are identified by the industrial and organizational boundaries. Findings, for example, show that the use of scientific knowledge negatively affects patent influence outside the biotechnology industry, while it positively contributes to make a patent more relevant for the assignee's subsequent technological developments. In addition, the broader the scope of a patent the higher the number of citations the patent receives from subsequent non-biotechnology patents. This relationship is inverted U-shaped when considering the influence of a patent on inventions granted to other organizations than the patent's assignee. Finally, the novelty of a patent is inverted-U related with the influence the patent exerts on the subsequent inventions granted across the industrial and organizational boundaries

Scientometric mapping as a strategic intelligence tool for the governance of emerging technologies

How can scientometric mapping function as a tool of ’strategic intelligence’ to aid the governance of emerging technologies? The present paper aims to address this question by focusing on a set of recently developed scientometric techniques, namely overlay mapping. We examine the potential these techniques have to inform, in a timely manner, analysts and decision-makers about relevant dynamics of technical emergence. We investigate the capability of overlay mapping in generating informed perspectives about emergence across three spaces: geographical, social, and cognitive. Our analysis relies on three empirical studies of emerging technologies in the biomedical domain: RNA interference (RNAi), Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) testing technologies for cervical cancer, and Thiopurine Methyltransferase (TPMT) genetic testing. The case-studies are analysed and mapped longitudinally by using publication and patent data. Results show the variety of ’intelligence’ inputs overlay mapping can produce for the governance of emerging technologies. Overlay mapping also confers to the investigation of emergence flexibility and granularity in terms of adaptability to different sources of data and selection of the levels of the analysis, respectively. These features make possible the integration and comparison of results from different contexts and cases, thus providing possibilities for a potentially more ’distributed’ strategic intelligence. The generated perspectives allow triangulation of findings, which is important given the complexity featuring in technical emergence and the limitations associated with the use of single scientometric approaches

Bibliometric perspectives on medical innovation using the medical subject headings of PubMed

arXiv:1203.1006Multiple perspectives on the nonlinear processes of medical innovations can be distinguished and combined using the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) of the MEDLINE database. Focusing on three main branches->diseases,> >drugs and chemicals,> and >techniques and equipment>-we use base maps and overlay techniques to investigate the translations and interactions and thus to gain a bibliometric perspective on the dynamics of medical innovations. To this end, we first analyze the MEDLINE database, the MeSH index tree, and the various options for a static mapping from different perspectives and at different levels of aggregation. Following a specific innovation (RNA interference) over time, the notion of a trajectory which leaves a signature in the database is elaborated. Can the detailed index terms describing the dynamics of research be used to predict the diffusion dynamics of research results? Possibilities are specified for further integration between the MEDLINE database on one hand, and the Science Citation Index and Scopus (containing citation information) on the other. © 2012 ASIS&T.We acknowledge support by the ESRC project “Mapping the Dynamics of Emergent Technologies” (RES-360-25-0076). Ismael Rafols acknowledges funding from U.S. National Science Foundation (Award 0830207, “Measuring and Tracking Research Knowledge Integration”).Peer Reviewe

Chapter 5 Technological accretion in diagnostics

This book brings together a collection of empirical case studies featuring a wide spectrum of medical innovation. While there is no unique pathway to successful medical innovation, recurring and distinctive features can be observed across different areas of clinical practice. This book examines why medical practice develops so unevenly across and within areas of disease, and how this relates to the underlying conditions of innovation across areas of practice. The contributions contained in this volume adopt a dynamic perspective on medical innovation based on the notion that scientific understanding, technology and clinical practice co-evolve along the co-ordinated search for solutions to medical problems. The chapters follow an historical approach to emphasise that the advancement of medical know-how is a contested, nuanced process, and that it involves a variety of knowledge bases whose evolutionary paths are rooted in the contexts in which they emerge. This book will be of interest to researchers and practitioners concerned with medical innovation, management studies and the economics of innovation. Chapter 5 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 3.0 license. https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/tandfbis/rt-files/docs/Open+Access+Chapters/9781138860346_oachapter5.pd

Mapping the de facto governance in the case of emerging science and technologies

Trabajo presentado a la 35th DRUID Celebration Conference on Innovation, Strategy and Entrepreneurship celebrada en Barcelona (España) del 17 al 19 de Junio de 2013.In this study, we discuss the use of novel scientometric mapping techniques as informative and interpretative tools about the rapid dynamics and uncertainties featuring in Emerging Science and Technologies (ESTs). We show how these techniques can provide perspectives on and crosscuts of the geographical, social, and cognitive spaces of the complex emergence process. Shedding light on these spaces the set of, both intentional and un-intentional, institutional arrangements that are established in the emergence of novel science and technologies - that is, as de facto governance - can be revealed. The informative and interpretative power of these tools resides in their transversal flexibility within and across databases, which themselves are characterized by longitudinal and institutional rigidities. Changing informed perspectives can play a crucial role in supporting the design of governance that is ‘tentative’, i.e. forms of governance aiming to address the complexity, interdependencies, and contingencies featuring in ESTs. We discuss the contribution of these mapping techniques to the understanding of the phenomenon of tentative governance of ESTs across three case studies, namely RNA interference (RNAi), Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) and Thiopurine Methyltransferase (TPMT) testing technologies.Peer Reviewe

The emergence of molecular biology in the diagnosis of cervical cancer: A network perspective

Trabajo presentado a la Atlanta Conference on Science and Innovation Policy, celebrada en Atlanta (US) del 17 al 19 de septiembre de 2015.Cytology-base technologies have been extensively used for decades to diagnose cervical cancer in women despite the large number of false negative cases those may report. The rise of molecular biology, since mid-1980s, has spurred the emergence of novel diagnostic technologies, which have significantly changed both the research landscape and clinical practices around cervical cancer. Within this context, the present paper examines how different institutional groups of actors (research and higher education, governmental, hospital and care, industrial, and non-governmental organisations) have contributed to the emergence of molecular biology from an inter-organisational network lens (co-authorship data of publications). To do so, we analyse the patterns of network interactions among different institutional groups involved in the emerge process. We specifically examine the formation of ties (dyads) within and between groups as well as the extent to which organisational actors operate in di↵erent brokerage positions (triads) over the emergence process. The analysis is based on a sample of scientific articles published over more than 30 years in the diagnosis domain of cervical cancer research. Findings provide evidence that the process of tie formation as well as the brokerage activity follow different patterns according to the considered institutional group. The process of tie formation and brokerage activity also evolve over emergence.N

The value of structural diversity: assessing diversity for a sustainable research base

This report is about structural diversity - the diversity of disciplines, institutions and support mechanisms. Structural diversity is a property of a ‘strong’ research base that not only produces great research today but also has the capacity to address new challenges flexibly and responsively tomorrow. It is distinct from the contribution made by social diversity - the diversity of gender, nationality and ethnicity - to productivity, innovation and social cohesion. We need to assess diversity for future research just as much as we evaluate achievement for past research. Research assessment is usually a retrospective analysis of historical data whether it uses grant income, staff capacity, publication output, or citation impact. This is a very limited perspective for policy and investment. It is a skewed view of what might be important for the future of the research base. Awarding more funds to institutions and teams that did well last year is a safe bet only so long as next year looks similar. But the pace of discovery is accelerating, challenges change, new fields emerge and we lack the foresight to predict where demands and the breakthroughs will come next. The capacity to support excellence and respond to opportunity comes from: • Diversity of research fields: A broader range of disciplines supports exceptional levels of research excellence, fed through a network of institutions of regional and international significance (Evidence, 2002; Evidence, 2003). • Diversity in support which gives flexibility of research support to allow a mix of long and short term responses and includes strategic and responsive awards: Government has consistently argued that diverse funding mechanisms are required to enable curiosity-driven research and evolving, targeted programs of high policy priority or scientific need (Cabinet Office, 1993). • Diversity of research organisations, where mission-led units complement large and small universities with regional as well as international engagement: UK Government Chief Scientific Adviser Bob May showed that research economies with a strong university research base performed consistently better than those committed to narrow, mission-led research institutes (May, 1997). Because of our uncertainty about the future we need an agile and responsive research base. So why is this agility not core to the assessment of research and innovation? Diversity in the structure of the research system has been overlooked and under-researched because it is in practice a tricky concept to turn into a hard definition, and even trickier to quantify

Do funding sources complement or substitute? Examining the impact of cancer research publications

Academic research often draws on multiple funding sources. This paper investigates whether complementarity or substitutability emerges when different types of funding are used. Scholars have examined this phenomenon at the university and scientist levels, but not at the publication level. This gap is significant since acknowledgement sections in scientific papers indicate publications are often supported by multiple funding sources. To address this gap, we examine the extent to which different funding types are jointly used in publications, and to what extent certain combinations of funding are associated with higher academic impact (citation count). We focus on three types of funding accessed by UK-based researchers: national, international, and industry. The analysis builds on data extracted from all UK cancer-related publications in 2011, thus providing a 10-year citation window. Findings indicate that, although there is complementarity between national and international funding in terms of their co-occurrence (where these are acknowledged in the same publication), when we evaluate funding complementarity in relation to academic impact (we employ the supermodularity framework), we found no evidence of such a relationship. Rather, our results suggest substitutability between national and international funding. We also observe substitutability between international and industry funding

Deep Transitions: A mixed methods study of the historical evolution of mass production

Industrial societies contain a range of socio-technical systems fulfilling functions such as the provision of energy, food, mobility, housing, healthcare, finance and communications. The recent Deep Transitions (DT) framework outlines a series of propositions on how the multi-system co-evolution over 250 years of these systems has contributed to several current social and ecological crises. Drawing on evolutionary institutionalism, the DT framework places a special emphasis on the concepts of ‘rules’ and ‘meta-rules’ as coordination mechanisms within and across socio-technical systems. In this paper, we employ a mixed-method approach to provide an empirical assessment of the propositions of the DT framework. We focus on the historical evolution of mass production from the 18th century to the present. Combining a qualitative narrative based on a synthesis of secondary historical literature with a quantitative text mining-based analysis of the corpus of Scientific American (1845–2019), we map the emergence and alignment of rules underpinning mass production. Our study concludes by reflecting on important methodological lessons for the application of text mining techniques to examine large-scale and long-term socio-technical dynamics