Measuring science–technology interaction using rare inventor–author names

The relationship between science and technology has been extensively studied from both theoretical and quantitative perspectives. Quantitative studies typically use patents as proxy for technology and scientific papers as proxy for science, and investigate the relationship between the two. Most such studies have been limited to a single discipline or country. In this paper, we investigate science–technology interaction over a broad range of science and technology by identifying and validating a set of 18,251 inventor–authors through matching of rare names obtained from paper and patent data. These inventor–authors are listed as inventors on nearly 56,000 US patents between 2002 and 2006. Analysis of the distribution of these patents over classes shows that this 6.7% sample is a suitable sample for further analysis. In addition, a map of 290 IPC patent subclasses was created, showing the relationship between patent classes and industries as well as the distribution of patent classes with high science orientation and low science orientation.