Jian Wang Assistant Professor Science Based Business Program LIACS, Leiden University j.wang@sbb.leidenuniv.nl https://www.universiteitleiden.nl/en/staff members/jian-wang Research Interests: Economics of science and innovation; strategic management; social networks; bibliometrics; patent analysis

Bachelor thesis topics Translating science into innovation: An analysis of patent references to the scientific literature Creativity, specialization, and diversification

Topic 1 Translating science into innovation: An analysis of patent references to the scientific literature

Translating science into innovation: Motivation Science is an important source of societal and economic development, but we have limited understanding on the pathway from science to innovation. Universities are expected to play a more active and direct role in stimulating industrial growth, but how? One obstacle: lack of a large-scale database of knowledge flow from science to innovation. Goal: Develop a method to link publications to patents citing these publications. Evaluate the validity of using this link to study knowledge flow from science to innovation. Investigate features of science that is directly relevant for patented inventions.

Translating science into innovation: Available data Georgia Institute of Technology Academic Scientists Survey (2010) Sample: over 9000 US publications in the Web of Science database (2001-2006), stratified by disciplines and citations 2327 completed responses (26% response rate) Survey information on the project that produced the sampled publication Technology transfer activities: patenting, licensing, start-up Project characteristics Team structure and member characteristics Web of Science (WoS) bibliometric data Impact: forward citations of the sampled publications Novelty Interdisciplinarity Other basic publication features

Translating science into innovation: Additional data work Develop a method to search the sampled publications in the US patent full text and check whether they are cited. United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) patent full texts are publically available at Google patents Reed Tech A classification model Features: matches in author name, paper title, journal title, volume/issue number, starting/ending page …

Translating science into innovation: Data analysis Is patent citation to publications a good indicator of knowledge flow from science to innovation? Compare patent citation data with survey information on technology transfer activities What kinds of science is more likely to be cited by patents? Explanatory variables: Survey variables about project and team characteristics Bibliometric variables such as publication impact, novelty, interdisciplinarity, etc.

Translating science into innovation: Expectations Enthusiasm in technological innovation Affinity with data mining Develop method to link publications to patents Basic statistical data analysis skills Preferably some basic knowledge on applied economics and management science

Creativity, specialization, and diversification Topic 2 Creativity, specialization, and diversification

Creativity, specialization, and diversification: Motivation On the one hand, the stock of knowledge is growing at an ever faster rate. It is impossible for a researcher to be an expert on many subjects, and it is necessary to specialize in order to push forward the frontier of knowledge. On the other hand, being a generalist is important for keeping a whole picture, and diversification is important for identifying missing connections and new perspectives. Research question: Which strategy is more beneficial for creativity: specialization or diversification?

Creativity, specialization, and diversification: Research question Which strategy is more beneficial for creativity: specialization or diversification? Furthermore: Different levels of specialization/diversification: A diverse team of specialists vs. a team of generalists Different dimensions: Methods, chemical, disease Specialize in one disease but diversify in various chemicals is a better strategy than specialize in one disease and one chemical?

Creativity, specialization, and diversification: Available data PubMed Database of biomedical publications Medical subject headings (MeSH) Expert-controlled keywords of the publication Author-ity Disambiguated author names for PubMed Web of Science Linked to PubMed Additional information E.g., Citations across all scientific fields

Creativity, specialization, and diversification: Additional data work Classify medical subject headings (MeSH) Method Chemical Disease Construct specialization/diversification variables based on MeSH terms Different levels Different dimensions

Creativity, specialization, and diversification: Data analysis Publication level Unit of analysis publication Explained variable Forward citations … Explanatory variable Team specialization Member specialization Individual level Unit of analysis Individual scientist Explained variable Forward citations … Explanatory variable Individual specialization Coauthor profile

Creativity, specialization, and diversification: Expectations Enthusiasm in economics/organization of science, creativity, … Affinity with data processing Classify MeSH terms into different categories Relational database Basic statistical data analysis skills Preferably some basic knowledge on applied economics, organization theory, social networks, …