Purpose

The goal of this study was to investigate the co-citation of information security patents in the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) database.

Design/methodology/approach

This research is a scientometrics study that has been conducted using the co-citation analysis. The statistical population of the present study includes all patents of information security filed in the USPTO database from 1971 to 2015. As a result of this search, 30,736 patents were retrieved. In this investigation, UCINET software and its complementary package (NetDraw) were employed to plot scientific maps.

Findings

The findings of this study indicated an upward trend of patents in the field of information security between 1971 and 2015. The “California State” has the top world rank in information security inventions, followed by “Japan” and the “Washington State.” “VAN WIE, DAVID M” is the most cited inventor in the field of information security. The analysis of inventors' co-citation data indicated that “ADAMS, NEIL- LITTLE” and “HERBERT ANTHONY” had the highest co-citation rates with each other and were ranked first. The survey of high-citation inventors based on centrality indices indicated that “LEACH, PAUL J” graded first in degree centrality, “BENALOH, JOSH D” in betweenness centrality and “BENALOH, JOSH D” in closeness centrality.

Originality/value

The co-citation analysis of patents can show the most important patents and the relationships between them. Such analyses can be useful for large-scale policymaking or identification of existing gaps and attempting to address them.

中文翻译：

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美国专利商标局数据库中信息安全专利的共引研究

目的

本研究的目的是调查美国专利商标局 (USPTO) 数据库中信息安全专利的共引情况。

设计/方法/方法

本研究是一项使用共引分析进行的科学计量学研究。本研究的统计人群包括从 1971 年到 2015 年在 USPTO 数据库中提交的所有信息安全专利。作为该搜索的结果，检索到 30,736 项专利。在本次调查中，使用 UCINET 软件及其补充包 (NetDraw) 绘制科学地图。

发现

本研究的结果表明，1971年至2015年信息安全领域的专利呈上升趋势。“加利福尼亚州”在信息安全发明方面位居世界前列，其次是“日本”和“华盛顿州”。“VAN WIE, DAVID M”是信息安全领域被引用次数最多的发明人。对发明人共被引数据的分析表明，“ADAMS, NEIL-LITTLE”和“HERBERT ANTHONY”的共被引率最高，排名第一。基于中心性指数的高被引发明人调查表明，“LEACH, PAUL J”的程度中心性排名第一，“BENALOH, JOSH D”的中介中心性排名第一，“BENALOH, JOSH D”的接近中心性排名第一。

原创性/价值

专利的共引分析可以显示最重要的专利及其之间的关系。此类分析可用于大规模决策或确定现有差距并试图解决这些差距。