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Measuring technological performance of assignees using trace metrics in three fields

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Abstract

The study establishes three synthetic indicators derived from academic traces—assignee traces T 1, T 2 and ST—and investigates their application in evaluating technological performance of assignees. Patent data for the top 100 assignees in three fields, “Computer Hardware & Software”, “Motors, Engines & Parts”, and “Drugs & Medical”, were retrieved from USPTO for further analysis. The results reveal that traces are indeed valid and useful indicators for measuring technological performance and providing detailed technical information about assignees and the industry. In addition, we investigate the relationship between traces and three other indicators: patent citation counts, Current Impact Index and patent h-index. In comparison with the three other indicators, traces demonstrate unique advantages and can be a good complement to patent citation analysis.

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Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful for financial support from NSFC Grant No. 71173187, and thank Ms. Huei-Ru Dong for data processing, and Ms. Wei-Tzu Huang for data collection.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Library and Information Science, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan

    Mu-Hsuan Huang & Danqi Shen

  2. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Institute of Industrial Engineering, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan

    Dar-Zen Chen

  3. Department of Information Resource Management, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China

    Mona S. Wang

  4. School of Information Management, Nanjing University, Nanjing, China

    Fred Y. Ye

Authors
  1. Mu-Hsuan Huang
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  2. Dar-Zen Chen
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  3. Danqi Shen
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  4. Mona S. Wang
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  5. Fred Y. Ye
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Dar-Zen Chen or Fred Y. Ye.

Appendix

Appendix

See Table 10.

Table 10 Top 100 assignees with highest citations and their countries
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Huang, MH., Chen, DZ., Shen, D. et al. Measuring technological performance of assignees using trace metrics in three fields. Scientometrics 104, 61–86 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-015-1604-8

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