Patent-bibliometric analysis on the Chinese science - technology linkages

The purpose of this study is to explore the character and pattern of the linkage between science and technology in China, based on the database of United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). The analysis is focused on the period 1995-2004, a rapid increasing period for Chinese US patents. Using the scientific non-patent references (NPRs) within patents, we investigate the science-technology connection in the context of Chinese regions as well as industrial sectors classified by International Patent Classification (IPC). 11 technological domains have been selected to describe the science intensity of the technology. The results suggest that the patents and the corresponding scientific citations are related in different ways. Finally, we match the scientific NPRs to the Science Citation Index (SCI) covered publications to identify the core journals and categories. It reveals that the scientific references covered by SCI show a skewed distribution not only in journals but also in categories.