Temporal and spatial relations between patents and scientific journal articles: the case of nanotechnologies

Patent citations have been widely used in order to study inter-technology and science-technology relations. The present work aims at: i) exploring time relations and distance between technical/innovative activities and scientific knowledge, using journal articles citations in patents as a proxy; ii) exploring the origin of the knowledge cited in patents. The study is performed on a field particularly relevant both on the scientific and technological side, that of nanosciences and nanotechnologies. In parallel a field less on the edge of research (polymers) is studied in order to compare results and shed better light on what is happening in nanotech. Studied items show a common behaviour and a higher rate of citations and a shorter time lag between citing patents and cited articles for nanotechnologies rather than for polymers. Knowledge cited in patents shows in many cases a common origin with that of citing documents. Conclusions on these behaviours are drawn.