IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/scient/v120y2019i1d10.1007_s11192-019-03123-x.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Patent sleeping beauties: evolutionary trajectories and identification methods

Author

Listed:
  • Jianhua Hou

    (Sun Yat-sen University)

  • Xiucai Yang

    (Dalian University)

Abstract

Sleeping Beauties in Science have attracted a lot of attention in scientometrics and beyond. However, sleeping beauties also appear in patent. In this paper, we put forward the concept of patent sleeping beauties. Since the evolution trajectory of patents after public announcement includes citation, transformation and license, we have defined the evolution trajectories of patents through three indicators including early sudden awakening (the “Flash in the pan”), early gradual awakening (the “Pea Princess”), delay gradual awakening (the “Ugly Duckling”), delay sudden awakening (the “sleeping beauty”) and sleeping patent. Furthermore, this paper constructs a quantitative model to identify patent sleeping beauties. Taking the graphene technology patent of China as an example, this paper identified the patent sleeping beauties in graphene technology, and found that the number of sleeping beauty patents accounted for only 0.59% of all patents. In the aspect of patent awakening mode, the awakening of patents with gradual awakening is mainly caused by both cited and transferred or cited and licensed. However, both the flash-in-the-pan and the sleeping beauty patents are mainly caused by transferring or licensing single factor. At the same time, through investigation, we found that patent invalidation will not hinder patent awakening, patent awakening will extend the effective life of patents. At last, we provide policy implications for researchers and managers.

Suggested Citation

  • Jianhua Hou & Xiucai Yang, 2019. "Patent sleeping beauties: evolutionary trajectories and identification methods," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 120(1), pages 187-215, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:scient:v:120:y:2019:i:1:d:10.1007_s11192-019-03123-x
    DOI: 10.1007/s11192-019-03123-x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11192-019-03123-x
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11192-019-03123-x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Aurora A. C. Teixeira & Pedro Cosme Vieira & Ana Patrícia Abreu, 2017. "Sleeping Beauties and their princes in innovation studies," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 110(2), pages 541-580, February.
    2. Rodrigo Costas & Thed N. van Leeuwen & Anthony F.J. van Raan, 2010. "Is scientific literature subject to a ‘Sell‐By‐Date’? A general methodology to analyze the ‘durability’ of scientific documents," Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 61(2), pages 329-339, February.
    3. Adil El Aichouchi & Philippe Gorry, 2018. "Delayed recognition of Judah Folkman’s hypothesis on tumor angiogenesis: when a Prince awakens a Sleeping Beauty by self-citation," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 116(1), pages 385-399, July.
    4. Jiang Li & Fred Y. Ye, 2016. "Distinguishing sleeping beauties in science," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 108(2), pages 821-828, August.
    5. Rodrigo Costas & Thed N. van Leeuwen & Anthony F.J. van Raan, 2010. "Is scientific literature subject to a ‘Sell-By-Date’? A general methodology to analyze the ‘durability’ of scientific documents," Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 61(2), pages 329-339, February.
    6. Lachance, Christian & Larivière, Vincent, 2014. "On the citation lifecycle of papers with delayed recognition," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 8(4), pages 863-872.
    7. Norio Ohba & Kumiko Nakao, 2012. "Sleeping beauties in ophthalmology," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 93(2), pages 253-264, November.
    8. Aurel Avramescu, 1979. "Actuality and Obsolescence of Scientific Literature," Journal of the American Society for Information Science, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 30(5), pages 296-303, September.
    9. Lutz Bornmann & Adam Y. Ye & Fred Y. Ye, 2018. "Identifying “hot papers” and papers with “delayed recognition” in large-scale datasets by using dynamically normalized citation impact scores," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 116(2), pages 655-674, August.
    10. Hu, Zewen & Wu, Yishan, 2014. "Regularity in the time-dependent distribution of the percentage of never-cited papers: An empirical pilot study based on the six journals," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 8(1), pages 136-146.
    11. Anthony F. J. Raan & Jos J. Winnink, 2018. "Do younger Sleeping Beauties prefer a technological prince?," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 114(2), pages 701-717, February.
    12. James Hartley & Yuh-Shan Ho, 2017. "Who woke the sleeping beauties in psychology?," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 112(2), pages 1065-1068, August.
    13. Tibor Braun & Wolfgang Glänzel & András Schubert, 2010. "On Sleeping Beauties, Princes and other tales of citation distributions …," Research Evaluation, Oxford University Press, vol. 19(3), pages 195-202, September.
    14. Hendrik P. van Dalen & K?ne Henkens, 2005. "Signals in science - On the importance of signaling in gaining attention in science," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 64(2), pages 209-233, August.
    15. Ratnadeep Dey & Anurag Roy & Tanmoy Chakraborty & Saptarshi Ghosh, 2017. "Sleeping beauties in Computer Science: characterization and early identification," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 113(3), pages 1645-1663, December.
    16. Colavizza, Giovanni & Franceschet, Massimo, 2016. "Clustering citation histories in the Physical Review," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 10(4), pages 1037-1051.
    17. Leihan Zhang & Ke Xu & Jichang Zhao, 2017. "Sleeping beauties in meme diffusion," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 112(1), pages 383-402, July.
    18. Leo Egghe & Raf Guns & Ronald Rousseau, 2011. "Thoughts on uncitedness: Nobel laureates and Fields medalists as case studies," Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 62(8), pages 1637-1644, August.
    19. Jiang Li & Fred Y. Ye, 2012. "The phenomenon of all-elements-sleeping-beauties in scientific literature," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 92(3), pages 795-799, September.
    20. Palomeras, Neus, 2003. "Sleeping patents: any reason to wake up?," IESE Research Papers D/506, IESE Business School.
    21. Jianjun Sun & Chao Min & Jiang Li, 2016. "A vector for measuring obsolescence of scientific articles," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 107(2), pages 745-757, May.
    22. Wolfgang Glänzel & Balázs Schlemmer & Bart Thijs, 2003. "Better late than never? On the chance to become highly cited only beyond the standard bibliometric time horizon," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 58(3), pages 571-586, November.
    23. Anthony F. J. van Raan, 2004. "Sleeping Beauties in science," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 59(3), pages 467-472, March.
    24. Leo Egghe & Raf Guns & Ronald Rousseau, 2011. "Thoughts on uncitedness: Nobel laureates and Fields medalists as case studies," Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 62(8), pages 1637-1644, August.
    25. Ponomarev, Ilya V. & Williams, Duane E. & Hackett, Charles J. & Schnell, Joshua D. & Haak, Laurel L., 2014. "Predicting highly cited papers: A Method for Early Detection of Candidate Breakthroughs," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 49-55.
    26. Susanne E. Baumgartner & Loet Leydesdorff, 2014. "Group-based trajectory modeling (GBTM) of citations in scholarly literature: Dynamic qualities of “transient” and “sticky knowledge claims”," Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 65(4), pages 797-811, April.
    27. Jian Du & Yishan Wu, 2018. "A parameter-free index for identifying under-cited sleeping beauties in science," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 116(2), pages 959-971, August.
    28. Hui Fang, 2018. "Analysing the variation tendencies of the numbers of yearly citations for sleeping beauties in science by using derivative analysis," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 115(2), pages 1051-1070, May.
    29. Jiang Li, 2014. "Citation curves of “all-elements-sleeping-beauties”: “flash in the pan” first and then “delayed recognition”," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 100(2), pages 595-601, August.
    30. Jiang Li & Dongbo Shi, 2016. "Sleeping beauties in genius work: When were they awakened?," Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 67(2), pages 432-440, February.
    31. Philippe Gorry & Pascal Ragouet, 2016. "“Sleeping beauty” and her restless sleep: Charles Dotter and the birth of interventional radiology," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 107(2), pages 773-784, May.
    32. Anthony F. J. Raan, 2017. "Sleeping beauties cited in patents: Is there also a dormitory of inventions?," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 110(3), pages 1123-1156, March.
    33. Yuh-Shan Ho & James Hartley, 2017. "Sleeping beauties in psychology," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 110(1), pages 301-305, January.
    34. Zhang, Ruizhi & Wang, Jian & Mei, Yajun, 2017. "Search for evergreens in science: A functional data analysis," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 11(3), pages 629-644.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Yang, Jinqing & Bu, Yi & Lu, Wei & Huang, Yong & Hu, Jiming & Huang, Shengzhi & Zhang, Li, 2022. "Identifying keyword sleeping beauties: A perspective on the knowledge diffusion process," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 16(1).
    2. Pezzoni, Michele & Veugelers, Reinhilde & Visentin, Fabiana, 2022. "How fast is this novel technology going to be a hit? Antecedents predicting follow-on inventions," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 51(3).
    3. Anthony F. J. van Raan, 2021. "Sleeping beauties gain impact in overdrive mode," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 126(5), pages 4311-4332, May.
    4. Hou, Jianhua & Yang, Xiucai, 2020. "Social media-based sleeping beauties: Defining, identifying and features," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 14(2).
    5. Jianhua Hou & Hao Li & Yang Zhang, 2023. "Altmetrics-based sleeping beauties: necessity or just a supplement?," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 128(10), pages 5477-5506, October.
    6. Jianhua Hou & Xiucai Yang & Yang Zhang, 2023. "The effect of social media knowledge cascade: an analysis of scientific papers diffusion," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 128(9), pages 5169-5195, September.
    7. Song, Haoyang & Hou, Jianhua & Zhang, Yang, 2023. "The measurements and determinants of patent technological value: Lifetime, strength, breadth, and dispersion from the technology diffusion perspective," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 17(1).
    8. Wang, Chang & Geng, Hongjun & Sun, Rui & Song, Huiling, 2022. "Technological potential analysis and vacant technology forecasting in the graphene field based on the patent data mining," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    9. Jianhua Hou & Xiucai Yang & Haoyang Song & Haiyue Yao, 2023. "Will patent family be dormant? Research on the identification and characteristics of sleeping beauty’s patent family," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 128(10), pages 5361-5387, October.
    10. Elena M. Tur & Evangelos Bourelos & Maureen McKelvey, 2022. "The case of sleeping beauties in nanotechnology: a study of potential breakthrough inventions in emerging technologies," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 69(3), pages 683-708, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Hou, Jianhua & Yang, Xiucai, 2020. "Social media-based sleeping beauties: Defining, identifying and features," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 14(2).
    2. Hui Fang, 2018. "Analysing the variation tendencies of the numbers of yearly citations for sleeping beauties in science by using derivative analysis," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 115(2), pages 1051-1070, May.
    3. Hui Fang, 2019. "A transition stage co-citation criterion for identifying the awakeners of sleeping beauty publications," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 121(1), pages 307-322, October.
    4. Helena H. Zhang & Fred Y. Ye, 2020. "Identifying ‘associated-sleeping-beauties’ in ‘swan-groups’ based on small qualified datasets of physics and economics," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 122(3), pages 1525-1537, March.
    5. ZhangJian Zong & XuanZhen Liu & Hui Fang, 2018. "Sleeping beauties with no prince based on the co-citation criterion," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 117(3), pages 1841-1852, December.
    6. Yang, Jinqing & Bu, Yi & Lu, Wei & Huang, Yong & Hu, Jiming & Huang, Shengzhi & Zhang, Li, 2022. "Identifying keyword sleeping beauties: A perspective on the knowledge diffusion process," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 16(1).
    7. Jianhua Hou & Hao Li & Yang Zhang, 2023. "Altmetrics-based sleeping beauties: necessity or just a supplement?," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 128(10), pages 5477-5506, October.
    8. Jianhua Hou & Xiucai Yang & Haoyang Song & Haiyue Yao, 2023. "Will patent family be dormant? Research on the identification and characteristics of sleeping beauty’s patent family," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 128(10), pages 5361-5387, October.
    9. Miura, Takahiro & Asatani, Kimitaka & Sakata, Ichiro, 2023. "Revisiting the uniformity and inconsistency of slow-cited papers in science," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 17(1).
    10. Li, Jiang & Shi, Dongbo & Zhao, Star X. & Ye, Fred Y., 2014. "A study of the “heartbeat spectra” for “sleeping beauties”," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 8(3), pages 493-502.
    11. Onodera, Natsuo, 2016. "Properties of an index of citation durability of an article," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 10(4), pages 981-1004.
    12. You Song & Fangling Situ & Hongjun Zhu & Jinzhi Lei, 2018. "To be the Prince to wake up Sleeping Beauty: the rediscovery of the delayed recognition studies," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 117(1), pages 9-24, October.
    13. Jianhua Hou & Xiucai Yang & Yang Zhang, 2023. "The effect of social media knowledge cascade: an analysis of scientific papers diffusion," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 128(9), pages 5169-5195, September.
    14. Adil El Aichouchi & Philippe Gorry, 2018. "Delayed recognition of Judah Folkman’s hypothesis on tumor angiogenesis: when a Prince awakens a Sleeping Beauty by self-citation," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 116(1), pages 385-399, July.
    15. Aurora A. C. Teixeira & Pedro Cosme Vieira & Ana Patrícia Abreu, 2017. "Sleeping Beauties and their princes in innovation studies," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 110(2), pages 541-580, February.
    16. Chi, Yuxue & Tang, Xianyi & Liu, Yijun, 2022. "Exploring the “awakening effect” in knowledge diffusion: a case study of publications in the library and information science domain," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 16(4).
    17. Anthony F. J. van Raan, 2021. "Sleeping beauties gain impact in overdrive mode," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 126(5), pages 4311-4332, May.
    18. Li, Xin & Ma, Xiaodi & Feng, Ye, 2024. "Early identification of breakthrough research from sleeping beauties using machine learning," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 18(2).
    19. Marcel Clermont & Johanna Krolak & Dirk Tunger, 2021. "Does the citation period have any effect on the informative value of selected citation indicators in research evaluations?," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 126(2), pages 1019-1047, February.
    20. Yuh-Shan Ho & James Hartley, 2017. "Sleeping beauties in psychology," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 110(1), pages 301-305, January.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:scient:v:120:y:2019:i:1:d:10.1007_s11192-019-03123-x. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.