Inventor-Authors: Knowledge Integrators or Weak Links? An Exploratory Comparison of Patenting Researchers with their Non-inventing Peers in Nano Science and Technology

This paper explores the relationship between scientific publication and patenting activity. More specifically, this research examines for the field of nanoscience and nanotechnology whether researchers who both publish and patent are more productive and more highly cited than their peers who concentrate on scholarly publication in communicating their research results. This study is based on an analysis of nano-science publications and nanotechnology patents of a small set of European countries. While only a very small number of nano-scientists appear to hold patents in nanotechnology, a considerable number of nano-inventors seem to be actively publishing nano-science research. Overall, these co-active individuals appear to outperform their solely publishing, non-inventing peers in terms of publication counts and citation frequency. However, a closer examination of the highly active and cited nano-authors points to a slightly different situation. While over-represented in this top category, inventor-authors appear not to claim the top ranks within it in most instances.