A surname-based patent-related indicator: the contribution of Jewish inventors to US patents

Igor Kissin () and Edwin L. Bradley
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Igor Kissin: Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School
Edwin L. Bradley: University of Alabama

Scientometrics, 2013, vol. 97, issue 2, No 11, 357-368

Abstract: Abstract It was found that the surname-based representation of Jewish authors in the top US biomedical journals corresponds to the representation of Jewish Nobel Laureates in Medicine among US laureates: Both of them are almost equally disproportionately high, with the ratio of actual to expected number close to 20 (Kissin, Scientometrics 89:273–280, 2011). The main aim of this study was to determine whether the contribution of Jewish inventors is also disproportionately high. The number of patents (US Patent and Trademark Office database) per thousand persons with the same surname (2000 Census) was determined (index P). Index P was compared with index A, which represents the number of the articles in the top US biomedical journals, and index G, which is based on the representation of a surname in the Google’s option “Discussions”, reflecting a combination of various business and leisure activities (designed as a negative control). The collective contributions of the 96 Jewish surname groups for each of the above indices were calculated. The ratio of actual to expected number of US patents was found to be disproportionately high—6.1 (p

Keywords: Bibliometrics; Impact factor; Inventions; Patents; Publication productivity; Surnames (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
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DOI: 10.1007/s11192-013-1005-9

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