Science quality and the value of inventions (Replication files)

Despite decades of research, the relationship between the quality of science and the value of inventions has remained unclear. We present the result of a large-scale matching exercise between 4.8 million patent families and 43 million publication records. We find a strong positive relationship between the quality of the scientific contributions referenced in patents and the value of the respective inventions. We rank patents by the quality of the science to which they are linked. Strikingly, high-ranking patents are twice as valuable as low-ranking patents, which in turn are about as valuable as patents without a direct science link. We show this core result for various science quality and patent value measures. The effect of science quality on patent value remains relevant even when science is linked indirectly through other patents. Our findings imply that what is considered “excellent” within the science sector also leads to outstanding outcomes in the technological and commercial realms.

尽管数十年的研究，科学与发明价值之间的关系始终不甚明了。本研究通过一项大规模的匹配实验，将480万项专利家族与4300万篇出版物记录进行配对，揭示了专利中引用的科学贡献质量与相应发明价值之间存在着显著的正相关关系。我们根据与专利相链接的科学质量对其进行排名。令人瞩目地，排名靠前的专利价值是排名靠后的专利的两倍，而后者又与无直接科学链接的专利价值相当。我们对这一核心发现进行了多种科学质量与专利价值指标的验证。即使通过其他专利间接关联，科学质量对专利价值的影响依然显著。我们的研究结果表明，在科学领域被视为‘卓越’的成果，亦能在技术及商业领域产生卓越的成果。