Seokbeom Kwon

Analyzing collaboration networks and developmental patterns of nano-enabled drug delivery (NEDD) for brain cancer

Summary The rapid development of new and emerging science & technologies (NESTs) brings unprecedented challenges, but also opportunities. In this paper, we use bibliometric and social network analyses, at country, institution, and individual levels, to explore the patterns of scientific networking for a key nano area – nano-enabled drug delivery (NEDD). NEDD has successfully been used clinically to modulate drug release and to target particular diseased tissues. The data for this research come from a global compilation of research publication information on NEDD directed at brain cancer. We derive a family of indicators that address multiple facets of research collaboration and knowledge transfer patterns. Results show that: (1) international cooperation is increasing, but networking characteristics change over time; (2) highly productive institutions also lead in influence, as measured by citation to their work, with American institutes leading; (3) research collaboration is dominated by local relationships, with interesting information available from authorship patterns that go well beyond journal impact factors. Results offer useful technical intelligence to help researchers identify potential collaborators and to help inform R&D management and science & innovation policy for such nanotechnologies.

Tracking the emergence of synthetic biology

Synthetic biology is an emerging domain that combines biological and engineering concepts and which has seen rapid growth in research, innovation, and policy interest in recent years. This paper contributes to efforts to delineate this emerging domain by presenting a newly constructed bibliometric definition of synthetic biology. Our approach is dimensioned from a core set of papers in synthetic biology, using procedures to obtain benchmark synthetic biology publication records, extract keywords from these benchmark records, and refine the keywords, supplemented with articles published in dedicated synthetic biology journals. We compare our search strategy with other recent bibliometric approaches to define synthetic biology, using a common source of publication data for the period from 2000 to 2015. The paper details the rapid growth and international spread of research in synthetic biology in recent years, demonstrates that diverse research disciplines are contributing to the multidisciplinary development of synthetic biology research, and visualizes this by profiling synthetic biology research on the map of science. We further show the roles of a relatively concentrated set of research sponsors in funding the growth and trajectories of synthetic biology. In addition to discussing these analyses, the paper notes limitations and suggests lines for further work.

Navigating the innovation trajectories of technology by combining specialization score analyses for publications and patents: graphene and nano-enabled drug delivery

AbstractIn this study, we combine the specialization scores for publications and patents (the latter is a new indicator of cross-disciplinary engagement) to achieve more comprehensive navigation of the innovation trajectory of a technology. The patent specialization score draws upon counterpart research publication indicator concepts to measure patent diversity. Two nano-based technologies—Nano-enabled drug delivery (NEDD) and Graphene—provide contrasting explorations of the behavior of this indicator, alongside research publication indicators. Results show distinctive patterns of the two technologies and for the respective publication and patent indicators. NEDD research, as evidenced by publication and citation patterns, engages highly diverse research fields. In contrast, NEDD development, as reflected in patent International Patent Classifications (IPCs), concentrates on relatively closely associated fields. Graphene presents the opposite picture, with closely linked disciplines contributing to research, but much more diverse fields of application for its patents. We suggest that analyzing the field diversity of research publications and patents together, employing both specialization scores, can offer fruitful insights into innovation trajectories. Such information can contribute to technology and innovation management and policy for such emerging technologies.

Effect of Non-Practicing Entities on Innovation Society and Policy: An Agent Based Model and Simulation

Effect of Non-practicing entities (NPE) on innovation society has been a controversial issue owing to their having both positive and negative impacts. However, measuring the net effect as well as finding ways to reduce the probable negative effects of the NPEs has been a challenge. In this paper, we propose an agent-based model of the patent market to address the issue. We conduct a simulation to test whether NPEs produce more harm than good. Further, a simulation evaluates the efficacy of possible legislative options to control NPEs’ undesirable effects, which are being discussed in the U.S congress. Our result concludes that the negative effects of NPEs are likely to outweigh their potential benefits. In addition, it provides a first look at the effectiveness of each policy in relieving the NPE’s negative effect. We provide a quantitative ground for policy makers to discuss policy options regarding the NPE issue and a guideline for implementation of such policies.

National nanotechnology research prominence

ABSTRACT A new bibliometric technique enables one to distinguish high emergence topical content. This technique can be applied to sets of research publication abstracts reflecting a given technical domain (here, nanotechnology) to score cutting edge research terms. The resulting high emergence terms warrant special consideration in setting R&D priorities. The researchers (individuals, organizations, or countries) whose publications address those emergent terms heavily deserve consideration as possible leaders in that technical domain. This paper studies nanotechnology research publications using the new emergence scoring in conjunction with established bibliometric publication and citation measures. Findings challenge U.S. superiority in cutting edge nanotechnology research. China shows strongest at addressing emergent nanotechnology topics, followed by the U.S., South Korea, India, and, surprisingly, Iran.

A measure of knowledge flow between specific fields: Implications of interdisciplinarity for impact and funding

Encouraging knowledge flow between mutually relevant disciplines is a worthy aim of research policy makers. Yet, it is less clear what types of research promote cross-disciplinary knowledge flow and whether such research generates particularly influential knowledge. Empirical questions remain as to how to identify knowledge-flow mediating research and how to provide support for this research. This study contributes to addressing these gaps by proposing a new way to identify knowledge-flow mediating research at the individual research article level, instead of at more aggregated levels. We identify journal articles that link two mutually relevant disciplines in three ways—aggregating, bridging, and diffusing. We then examine the likelihood that these papers receive subsequent citations or have funding acknowledgments. Our case study of cognitive science and educational research knowledge flow suggests that articles that aggregate knowledge from multiple disciplines are cited significantly more often than are those whose references are drawn primarily from a single discipline. Interestingly, the articles that meet the criteria for being considered knowledge-flow mediators are less likely to reflect funding, based on reported acknowledgements, than were those that did not meet these criteria. Based on these findings, we draw implications for research policymakers.

Collaboration in Military Technology Innovation: An Empirical Test of Varieties of Capitalism

What causes organizations to collaborate in the development of military technologies? In this article, we evaluate the response to this question offered by Hall and Soskice’s (2001) Varieties of Capitalism (VoC). VoC contends that the institutional configurations of modern capitalist economies push organizations towards country-specific behavioral patterns in terms of collaboration frequency and collaborative network characteristics. We extract these claims and apply them to the empirical setting of military technology patents. Towards this end, we construct an original dataset of military technology innovation and employ novel metrics of historical collaboration stickiness and collaborative network breadth. We find that VoC’s predictions regarding organization-level patterns of collaboration are largely unsupported by the data. However, the VoC prediction that organizations within coordinated-market economies will form collaborative relationships characterized by greater historical persistence than those formed within liberal-market economies holds up to empirical scrutiny.