Science and Technology Indicators: A Comprehensive Analysis
Science and Technology Indicators
Resources Used Indicators
Input Indicators:
The most used indicators in the analysis of science, technology, and industry.
Total Cost of R&D:
A statistical unit (enterprise, region, country, or economic sector). Challenges: Lack of homogeneity regarding what constitutes R&D.
Human Resources for R&D:
Breakdown by function, occupation, or level of qualification. Problems: Difficulty in comparing data for personnel engaged in industrial, technological, or scientific activities.
Measuring the Quality of Science
Peer Assessment – Peer Review:
Scientific merit evaluation by other scientists working in the same or related fields.
Direct Peer Evaluation:
Evaluation by one or more scientists on topics specifically related to the quality or merits of scientific work.
Peer Review Modified:
Review that goes beyond the scientific, incorporating external criteria (socio-economic implications, political relevance, etc.).
Indirect Peer Evaluation:
Includes extra information about the performance of scientists.
Methods and Techniques:
- Computation of Publications: A quantitative method for evaluating research results.
- Citation Analysis: Examines whether other scientists cite a work because it is relevant to their own research.
- Act Concentration: Garfield notes that articles in any field of science tend to focus on the same high-impact or mainstream journals.
- Relational Indicators: Analyzes the assembly of quotations, topics, or authors and maps this data.
- Indicators of Reward: Honors received by a publication, person, or institution.
Bibliometrics and Scientometrics
Scientometric indicators (ISBN, book): Measure the quality and impact of scientific publications (extension of bibliometric indicators, production, activity rate, growth documentation, obsolescence).
Citation indicators (ISSN, book): Measure the amount and impact of relationships between scientific papers.
Measuring Economic Impact
Economic Impact Indicators:
Balance of payments technology: A set of invisible transfers, accounted for in a country’s balance of payments, related to the buying and selling of knowledge and information of a technological nature. Problem: Difficulty in incorporating technology transfers that occur without financial transactions.
Patents:
A right granted by a government to an inventor in exchange for publishing their invention, preventing a third party from using it for an agreed period. Problems: Requirements for patenting an invention vary across countries, and software development is often excluded.
International Trade in High Technology:
Linking data on imports and exports of products according to different technological levels. Problem: Technological intensity can vary greatly within a single product.
Difficulties in Determining Socio-Economic Effects:
Attribution of effects: How can an effect achieved based on industrial action after concrete research be attributed to the benefit achieved with a product or process?
Ownership of the research: Who benefits from the research?
Time factor: R&D is a long-term investment, and returns take place over a period of time.
Analysis Methods of Economic Evaluation
Cost-Benefit Analysis:
Estimates the impact of the investment made on the annual profit of the company that made the investment. Common financial ratios: NPV, IRR. Difficulty: Achieving sufficient data to identify externalities emerging from research that are not directly included in the sales price.
The BETA Method:
Quantifies the direct and indirect value-added benefits of R&D.
- Direct Effects: Directly related to the objectives of the R&D (sales of goods, etc.).
- Indirect Effects: (Scientific, technical, or organizational innovation in products, new institutional relationships.)