Patent-paper citations: A window into the technological impact of Tunisian research

Abstract

This study constitutes the first report evaluating research performance at a national level by analyzing literature references cited in patents. The objective is to quantify the technological impact of the Tunisian research through patent-paper citations. Using the SciVal research analytics tool, we retrieved Tunisian publications cited in patents from 2013 to 2022. Our analysis of 83,681 scholarly outputs revealed that 1,121 documents were cited in 2,417 patents. These cited documents exhibited significantly higher citation metrics compared to the global average. Interestingly, documents not assigned to any quartile had been also frequently cited in patents, outperforming those from quartiles Q2 to Q4. These unassigned documents primarily consist of conference papers within domains such as Computer Science, Engineering, and Mathematics. Outputs with collaboration limited to national or institutional levels exhibited lower citation rates in patents compared to international collaboration. Conversely, academic-corporate collaborations exhibited the highest citation share at 5.2%. The distribution of patents citing Tunisian literature across 56 countries underscores the global significance of Tunisian scholarly outputs. Nevertheless, Tunisia's direct engagement in patenting activities remains very limited. Efforts to enhance Tunisia's participation in patenting activities are warranted to maximize the socio-economic benefits of its research endeavours.