Study of the International Innovation Index and Mapping of Industrial Influence in Iranian Scientific Publications

Purpose: The relationship between new scientific knowledge and technical innovations is of great importance. Scientific citations of patents and technical citations of scientific texts are one way to study the relationship between science and technology. The primary objective of the present study is to examine Iran's scientific productions based on the International Influence Index of Research Outputs on Industry and Innovation, which is calculated using the citation of patents in scientific texts.
Method: This study was conducted using a documentary method, along with a scientometric and citation analysis approach. The research population consists of Iranian scientific documents that were cited in patent licenses during the period from 2018 to 2020. Given that a three-year period has been established for examining document citations, and all documents have been counted without regard to their subject matter—both of which are influential factors in citation—normalization was conducted based on time and subject. In order to standardize citations, the subjects of the articles were classified according to the categories of the journals that published them, based on the 22 primary subjects outlined in the basic science indicators. All documents were analyzed using the full count method, while uncitable documents and publication formats other than articles were excluded from the research community. In this study, data collection tools included Clarivate database products such as Web of Science (WOS), Journal Citation Reports (JCR), and Essential Science Indicators (ESI), along with the Lens, World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), and International Scientific Collaboration World University Rankings (ISCWUR) databases. The WIPO correspondence table categorizes the technological field of each patent according to the symbols of the International Patent Classification. Using this table, the technological field of each patent is identified according to the WIPO technology classification groups.
Findings: During the period from 2018 to 2020, a total of 274,560 documents were registered from Iran. Among these, 2,662 documents were cited in 3,820 patents, resulting in a total of 4,000 citations. Consequently, less than one percent of Iranian scientific works is referenced in patents. Based on normalized citations, Islamic Azad University ranks first among Iranian universities with 25.25 normalized citations. Tehran University of Medical Sciences and the University of Tehran rank second and third, with 23.10 and 14.78 normalized citations, respectively.
Conclusion: Based on the classification of technology groups, the highest number of patents is found in the field of pharmacy, while biotechnology and computer technology rank second and third, respectively, with a significant margin between them. Based on subject areas, articles in the fields
of chemistry, materials science, pharmacology, and toxicology are cited more frequently in patents than those in other disciplines, indicating that these fields have had the most significant impact on innovation.