Smoothing the lies: The distinctive effects of patent characteristics on examiner and applicant citations

Joaquín M. Azagra‐Caro, Pauline Mattsson and François Perruchas
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Joaquín M. Azagra-Caro

Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 2011, vol. 62, issue 9, 1727-1740

Abstract: Patent citations added by examiners are often used as indicators of technological impact and knowledge flows, despite various criticisms. In this study we analyze the distribution of examiner patent citations according to patent characteristics in order to show their limitations. According to our findings, the number of applicant citations included is dependent on the science‐base of the technology. However, this gets masked by the citations added by patent examiners, who smooth the distribution of citations across technology classes and include the same number of citations regardless of whether applicants cite any references. Some researchers have called for the use of applicant rather than examiner patent citations as indicators of technology impact and knowledge flows. Nevertheless, we show that the former also have important caveats, because applicants may increase the number of citations in international patents and when there are coapplicants. The implication is that analysts should consider a context‐driven use of citation‐based indicators.

Date: 2011
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (11)

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1002/asi.21574

Related works:
Journal Article: Smoothing the lies: The distinctive effects of patent characteristics on examiner and applicant citations (2011)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bla:jamist:v:62:y:2011:i:9:p:1727-1740

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://doi.org/10.1002/(ISSN)1532-2890

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology from Association for Information Science & Technology
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().