The use of foreign patenting as an internationally comparable science and technology output indicator

Foreign patenting activity in some of the world major patent systems is being compared between countries and industries and is found to be, with a few notable exceptions, relatively unbiased. Furthermore, a brief dynamic analysis of the foreign patenting activity in the USA of a number of OECD-countries in 41 industrial sectors in terms of ‘Revealed Technological Advantage’ indices suggests that foreign patent data might provide a very useful addition to the arsenal of Science and Technology Output Indicators.     

Indian science, technology, and society: The changing landscape

Over the centuries, India's scientific and technological position among developed and developing countries has shifted. Several centuries ago, it was characterized by scientific thought, capabilities, and techniques more advanced than many countries. However, when the scientific and industrial revolutions took place in the West, India was in a stagnant period. This paper looks at knowledge production in different countries vis-à-vis their economic strength, and then positions India within this landscape.Science and technology in India rest on four pillars: (1) techno-nationalism, (2) inclusive growth, (3) techno-globalism, and (4) global leadership. Each of these pillars is discussed in some detail, followed by concluding recommendations for steps India should take if it wishes to assume a leadership role among the world's developed nations.     

Multidimensional quantitative analysis of the Cuban scientific output and its regional context

Scientometrics - A multidimensional approach was applied to analyze trends of the Cuban scientific output in the context of the 21 Latin American countries exceeding two million inhabitants. Output...     

The relationship between scientists and science: knowledge-based innovation output

Many scientists were respected by people and science has made great development in the twentieth century. What role do scientists play in the process of scientific development? Does scientific development bring more researchers into scientists? This paper mainly analyzes the two interested questions and suggests that: (a) not all researchers’ output could be attributed to scientific knowledge, only the innovative output could promote science to develop. Scientists play a more significant role than the rest researchers in scientific development in average because scientists’ innovative consciousness is far higher than that of non-scientists. (b) Distinguishing scientists from researchers in accordance with the fixed basic contribution of innovative output in the process of scientific development. Researchers’ innovative work becomes easier with the accumulated scientific knowledge growing gradually in the initial stage of scientific development. Thus, scientific development could produce more and more scientists. On the contrary, researchers’ innovative work becomes more challenged with the accumulated scientific knowledge increasing gradually while science develops to a certain stage. As a result, scientific development would make researchers become scientist increasingly difficult.     

Hot-wire photonics: materials, science, and technology

The prospect of an integrated photonic technology has fueled an effort to understand the optical properties and to gauge the photonic engineering potential of hydrogenated amorphous silicon-based materials. Of particular interest for photonic engineering is the tunable range of the refractive index in amorphous silicon and the fast and slow light induced optical changes. The advance of photonic-engineered amorphous silicon technology requires an investigation into the relationships among fabrication processes, material properties, and the interrelations among the various optically important parameters. Here, the experimental investigation into H-implant refractive engineered amorphous silicon materials is detailed. Interestingly, the H-implant can interact with the amorphous structure to produce compacting of the structure, which may indicate refractive index increase. In addition, the evolving prospects for an amorphous silicon-based photonic technology will be up-dated. Waveguide-based light valve structures for the further scientific investigation of light induced refractive index change in amorphous silicon and technological applications are described.     

The perovskite structure – a review of its role in ceramic science and technology

Starting with the history of the fundamental science of the relation of structure to composition delineated completely by Goldschmidt, we use the perovskite structure to illustrate the enormous power of crystal chemistry-based intelligent synthesis in creating new materials. The perovskite structure is shown to be the single most versatile ceramic host. By appropriate changes in composition one can modify the most significant electroceramic dielectric (BaTiO₃ and its relatives) phase in industry, into metallic conductors, superconductors or the highest pressure phases in the earth. After an historical introduction of the science, detailed treatment of the applications is confined to the most recent research on novel uses in piezoelectric, ferroelectric and related applications. Received: 29 November 1999 / Accepted: 3 July 2000     

Science, technology and the economy: An Indian perspective

During the first three decades after 1947, the Indian economy grew only 3% per year but there was vast expansion in the science and technology (S&T) infrastructure. Decades later, especially during the last few years, the economy has grown much faster, but the S&T systems have not experienced the transformation that business and industry have. The net result is that the public sector S&T system is facing a major crisis even as the private sector contributes little to the national R&D effort. Wealth generation in India by private S&T services, especially in information technology, has led to greater prosperity for the educated middle class, but has also led to greater inequalities in income. The national scene is one of generally uneven achievement and extraordinary potential. This paper argues that unless another major shift in S&T policy occurs, there is real danger that India will not move beyond its status as a blue-collar S&T power.     

Impact factors and peer judgment: The case of regional science journals

Summary This paper discusses the relationship between Journal Impact Factors and the scientific community's judgment of the quality of journals in regional science, a discipline closely related to economics and geography. The paper compares the results of a survey inquiring the quality of journals in the discipline with the impact factors of these journals for a total of five years. The comparison shows that no significant positive correlation between the impact factors and the peer judgments can be found. In many cases the correlation turns out to be negative - in some cases even significantly.