Technological impact of biomedical research: the role of basicness and novelty

TL;DR

This study investigates how the basicness and novelty of biomedical research publications influence their likelihood of achieving direct technological impact, revealing that basic and novel papers are more impactful and faster to influence technology.

Contribution

It provides empirical evidence on the intrinsic characteristics of scientific publications, specifically basicness and novelty, that enhance their technological impact in biomedical research.

Findings

Basic and novel papers are more likely to have direct technological impact.

Basic and novel papers receive more patent citations.

Impactful papers have shorter time lag and broader technological influence.

Abstract

An ongoing interest in innovation studies is to understand how knowledge generated from scientific research can be used in the development of technologies. While previous inquiries have devoted to studying the scientific capacity of technologies and institutional factors facilitating technology transfer, little is known about the intrinsic characteristics of scientific publications that gain direct technological impact. Here we focus on two features, namely basicness and novelty. Using a corpus of 3.8 million papers published between 1980 and 1999, we find that basic science papers and novel papers are substantially more likely to achieve direct technological impact. Further analysis that limits to papers with technological impact reveals that basic science and novel science have more patent citations, experience shorter time lag, and have impact in broader technological fields.