Gaston Heimeriks

Mapping research topics using word-reference co-occurrences: A method and an exploratory case study

SummaryMapping of science and technology can be done at different levels of aggregation, using a variety of methods. In this paper, we propose a method in which title words are used as indicators for the content of a research topic, and cited references are used as the context in which words get their meaning. Research topics are represented by sets of papers that are similar in terms of these word-reference combinations. In this way we use words without neglecting differences and changes in their meanings. The method has several advantages, such as high coverage of publications. As an illustration we apply the method to produce knowledge maps of information science.

Patents as instruments for exploring innovation dynamics: geographic and technological perspectives on photovoltaic cells

The recently developed Cooperative Patent Classifications of the U.S. Patent and Trade Office (USPTO) and the European Patent Office (EPO) provide new options for an informed delineation of samples in both USPTO data and the Worldwide Patent Statistical Database (PatStat) of EPO. Among the “technologies for the mitigation of climate change” (class Y02), we zoom in on nine material technologies for photovoltaic cells; and focus on one of them (CuInSe2) as a lead case. Two recently developed techniques for making patent maps with interactive overlays—geographical ones using Google Maps and maps based on citation relations among International Patent Classifications (IPC)—are elaborated into dynamic versions that allow for online animations and comparisons by using split screens. Various forms of animation are discussed. The longitudinal development of Rao-Stirling diversity in the IPC-based maps provided us with a heuristics for studying technological diversity in terms of generations of the technology. The longitudinal patterns are clear in USPTO data more than in PatStat data because PatStat aggregates patent information from countries in different stages of technological development, whereas one can expect USPTO patents to be competitive at the technological edge.

The self-organization of the European information society: the case of biotechnology

Fields of technoscience like biotechnology develop in a network mode: disciplinary insights from different backgrounds are recombined as competing innovation systems are continuously reshaped. The ongoing process of integration at the European level generates an additional network of transnational collaborations. Using the title words of scientific publications in five core journals of biotechnology, multivariate analysis is used to distinguish between the intellectual organization of the publications in terms of title words and the institutional network in terms of addresses of documents. The interaction among the representation of intellectual space in terms of words and co-words, and the potentially European network system is compared with the document sets with American and Japanese addresses. The European system can also be decomposed in terms of the contributions of member states. Whereas a European vocabulary can be made visible at the global level, this communality disappears by this decomposition. The network effect at the European level can be considered as institutional more than cognitive.

Do more distant collaborations have more citation impact

Internationally co-authored papers are known to have more citation impact than nationally co-authored paper, on average. However, the question of whether there are systematic differences between pairs of collaborating countries in terms of the citation impact of their joint output, has remained unanswered. On the basis of all scientific papers published in 2000 and co-authored by two or more European countries, we show that citation impact increases with the geographical distance between the collaborating counties.

Technology Foresight as Innovation Policy Instrument – Learning from Science and Technology Studies

This paper aims at contributing to theoretical aspects of Foresight from the perspective of the interdisciplinary body of knowledge that has become known as STS - Science and Technology Studies (c.f. Jasanoff 1994). Drawing in particular on STS insights on the Social Shaping of Technology (SST) we would like to investigate the possibility of Foresight to support policy makers in influencing innovation trajectories according to societal needs. In this paper, we highlight four different modes of policy support Foresight is expected to deliver: Foresight as systemic innovation policy instrument fostering innovation capability, Foresight orienting innovation towards societal needs, Foresight as agenda setting process and Foresight a provider of anticipatory intelligence as a base for decision making. From these starting points, we turn to Social Shaping of Technology. Central to SST is the idea that technology co-evolves in a complex interaction with society which is reflected in both the design of individual artefacts and systems, and in the direction or trajectory of innovation programmes. Different routes are available, potentially leading to different technological outcomes. This paper discusses some relevant insights on the character of technologies, as well as their social implications, that are problematised and opened up for enquiry in SST; contingency and constraint of variation, role of expectations and visions, importance of downstream phase of innovation, importance of localisation and insights on steering possibilities for technological trajectories These insights allow us to elaborate one the concepts of Foresight as a process moderator, Foresight as expectation management, provision of anticipatory intelligence and localisation through Foresight.

Emerging search regimes: measuring co-evolutions among research, science, and society

Scientometric data is used to investigate empirically the emergence of search regimes in biotechnology, genomics and nanotechnology. Complex regimes can emerge when three independent sources of variance interact. In our model, researchers can be considered as the nodes that carry the science system. Research is geographically situated with site-specific skills, tacit knowledge and infrastructures. Second, the emergent science level refers to the formal communication of codified knowledge published in journals. Third, the socio-economic dynamics indicate the ways in which knowledge production relates to society. Although biotechnology, genomics and nanotechnology can all be characterised by rapid growth and divergent dynamics, the regimes differ in terms of self-organisation among these three sources of variance. The scope of opportunities for researchers to contribute within the constraints of the existing body of knowledge are different in each field. Furthermore, the relevance of the context of application contributes to the knowledge dynamics to various degrees.

Journal portfolio analysis for countries, cities, and organizations: Maps and comparisons

Using Web of Science data, portfolio analysis in terms of journal coverage can be projected onto a base map for units of analysis such as countries, cities, universities, and firms. The units of analysis under study can be compared statistically across the 10,000+ journals. The interdisciplinarity of the portfolios is measured using Rao‐Stirling diversity or Zhang et al.s improved measure 2D3. At the country level we find regional differentiation (e.g., Latin American or Asian countries), but also a major divide between advanced and less‐developed countries. Israel and Israeli cities outperform other nations and cities in terms of diversity. Universities appear to be specifically related to firms when a number of these units are exploratively compared. The instrument is relatively simple and straightforward, and one can generalize the application to any document set retrieved from the Web of Science (WoS). Further instruction is provided online at http://www.leydesdorff.net/portfolio.

On scaling of scientific knowledge production in U.S. metropolitan areas

Using data on all scientific publications from the Scopus database, we find a superlinear scaling effect for U.S. metropolitan areas as indicated by the increase of per capita publication output with city size. We also find that the variance of residuals is much higher for mid-sized cities (100,000 to 500,000 inhabitants) compared to larger cities. The latter result is indicative of the critical mass required to establish a scientific center in a particular discipline. Finally, we observe that the largest cities publish much less than the scaling law would predict, indicating that the largest cities are relatively unattractive locations for scientific research.

What drives university research performance? An analysis using the CWTS Leiden Ranking data

Abstract This paper analyzes the factors underlying university research performance as indicated by the number of highly-cited publications, international co-publications, and university-industry co-publications. The three performance indicators evaluate three possible university missions, respectively: research excellence, internationalization, and innovation. Using a regression analysis, we assess to what extent a universitys research performance is influenced by structural variables including size, age, city size, location in a capital city, disciplinary orientation, and country location. Our results show that research performance differences among universities mainly stem from size, disciplinary orientation and country location. This suggests that simple global benchmarking can be misleading; rather, benchmarking is most meaningful between universities of a similar size supplemented with contextual information on a universitys specific mission, orientation and national institutions.

A Systemic Assessment of the European Offshore Wind Innovation: Insights from the Netherlands, Denmark, Germany and the United Kingdom

The development and diffusion of offshore wind energy technology is important for European energy policy. However, the large potential does not automatically lead to a large share in future energy systems; neither does an emergent stage of technological development automatically lead to success for companies and the related economic growth and growth in employment. Recent insights in innovation studies suggest that the success chances of technological innovations are, to a large extent, determined by how the surrounding system (the innovation system) is built up and how it functions. Many innovation systems are characterized by flaws that hamper the development and diffusion of innovations. These flaws are often labelled as system problems or system challenges. Intelligent innovation policy therefore evaluates how innovation systems are functioning, tries to create insight into the systems’ challenges and develops policies accordingly. This report assesses the European offshore wind innovation system based on insights from four countries: Denmark, the UK, the Netherlands and Germany. We use the Technological Innovation System (TIS) approach to analyse the state and functioning of the system at the end of 2011. Based on the analysis we identify four types of systemic challenges: (i) actor-related such as deficiency of engineers; (ii) institutional, e.g. non-aligned national regulatory frameworks; (iii) interaction-related like poor transferability of scientific knowledge to specific contexts of application and; (iv) infrastructural such as poor grid infrastructure. We suggest the challenges require a systemic, coordinated policy effort at a European level if the system is expected to contribute to the goals of climate change reduction and stimulation of green growth.