A central section of StatNano website is devoted to indicators. The aim of this section is to monitor global trends, comparing and ranking of countries, organizations and other entities' achievements in the field of nano-science and nanotechnology. Indicators in the database are categorized as (a) general and (b) nano-related ones. Furthermore, these indicators are divided to three main classes according to the measured entities:
Currently, more indicators are measured and compared based on countries in comparison to universities and nano-materials. Almost all general indicators are measured by countries.
Another third classification is adopted based on a chain from scientific achievements to wealth generation. According to this chain, any indicators (regardless of being general or nano-related) falls within one of the following classes:
However, there is a key condition for presenting data for an indicator: If the required data are unavailable for more than 5 countries or date are available for less than 5 continuous time intervals, the corresponding indicators would not be shown in the website, since the main aim is to provide a comprehensive databank for all countries active in the world.
General indicators express general information about countries such as their population and GDP. These indicators are monitored and presented due to the fact that there are "compound" indicators measuring of which is in need of detailed data about general indicators. For instance, "publications per capita" is a compound indicator since if one intends to measure it for a particular country, she requires the population of that country as a general indicator.
General indicators are updated annually based on globally accepted sources such as World Bank and their quantities are extracted after being indexed by the mentioned sources and presented by year and country without any revision or change. Among indicators in this category, the number of ISI indexed articles is dealt with somehow differently with respect to source and methodology. This variation will be explained in what follows. In addition, while patent indicators are general ones as well, the methodology for their measurement will be explained in the nano-related indicators section due to the methodological similarity.
The classification, titles and definitions of general indicators are as follows:
Currently, nano-related indicators are confined to categories of Science (Articles), Innovation (Patents), and Industry (Standards). In Science class, a set of indicators are based on the number of articles and measure the quantity of nano-science publications while others are based on the number of citations and measure the quality of scientific achievements. The categories, titles and definitions of general indicators are as follows:
(nano* not nano2 not nano3 not nanog not nanosecond* not nanomol* not nanogram* not nanoplankton* or "atomic layer deposition*" or "giant magnetoresist*" or superparamagnetism or "single molecule magnet*" or "molecular magnetism" or graphen* or graphyne* or graphane* or dendrimer* or fulleren* or "c-60 layer*" or c60 or buckminsterfulleren* or buckyball* or "bucky-ball*" or "langmuir blodgett*" or mesopor* or "molecul* assembl*" or "molecul* wire*" or "porous silicon*" or "quantum dot*" or "quantum well*" or "quantum comput*" or "quantum wire*" or qubit* or "self assembl*" or supramolecul* or supermolecul* or "ultrathin film*" or "ultra-thin film*" or "carbon dot*" or "carbonized polymer dot*" or borophen* or mxene* or phosphorene* or "blue phosphorus" or ("virus like particle*" not chimeric) or "metal organic framework*" or "molecular switch*" or "single molecule switch*" or "single molecule electronic*" or "molecular electronic*" or germanene or silicene or ("Molybdenum disulfide" and (monolayer* or "few layer*" 2D or "two dimension*")))
Next box (Topic) : NOT "non-fulleren*"
Next steps for retrieving nano-articles are described in the following:
The following picture shows the related search page in Web of Science website.
Methodology of measurement: First of all, a given country's nano-articles are retrieved according the methodology described earlier (indicator 1.1). Then, the option "Analyze Result" is employed in order to determine the level of collaborations. If one selects the "Countries/Regions" option, the number of found articles will be shown by countries. For identifying a given country's joint articles (i.e. articles with authors from two or more countries), all countries except the considered one are selected. Then, by clicking "View Records" button, the number of joint articles will be shown. Finally, the indicator is calculated by dividing the mentioned number to the number of nano-articles published by the considered country. The average global share of international collaboration consists of numerical average of this indicator calculated for each country.
The below picture shows the "Countries/Region" page in Web of Science website.
It is noticeable that one cannot use the sum of all countries' nano-articles in order to calculate the number of joint articles. Given that joint articles are enumerated twice or more (according to the number of authors form different countries), the sum of countries' nano-articles is always more than the real number of global nano-articles. By clicking "View Records" option, each unique article is enumerated just one time and the mentioned problem will be avoided.
Methodology of measurement: Firstly, indexed nano-articles by a particular country are retrieved as it is described earlier. Then, the option "Create Citation Report" is selected and the number of citation can be reached by clicking the "Sum of the Times Cited" button. The shown number is the total number of all citations to the selected articles from the time of their publication. Obviously, more recent articles have typically less citations due to shorter time span after publication. The below picture shows this section in Web of Science website.
An important point here is that if the number of selected articles amounts to 10,000, the option "Create Citation Report" will become inactive. In such cases, on has to break the selected articles by year of publication, journals, universities etc. and analyze them in groups with less than 10,000 articles.
Methodology of measurement: Firstly, indexed nano-articles by a particular country are retrieved as it is described earlier. Then, the option "Create Citation Report" is selected and the number of citation can be reached by clicking the "Sum of the Times Cited" button. The shown number is the total number of all citations to the selected articles from the time of their publication. Obviously, more recent articles have typically less citations due to shorter time span after publication. The below picture shows this section in Web of Science website.
An important point here is that if the number of selected articles amounts to 10,000, the option "Create Citation Report" will become inactive. In such cases, on has to break the selected articles by year of publication, journals, universities etc. and analyze them in groups with less than 10,000 articles.
Indicators 1.1, 1.7, 1.8, and 1.9 can be measured for universities and research organizations as well. For retrieving a particular university/organization's articles, its name is selected in "Address" section. A relatively same method is used for finding articles about specific nano-material, but the proper search string for the nano-material is written in the "Topic" field as it is shown in the below picture. A detailed methodology is described in the methodology section for "Nano-material Databank"
The main indicator in this section is the number of patents registered in well-known patent offices. Currently, patents registered in United Sates Patent and Trademark office (USPTO) and European Patent Office (EPO) are studied in Innovation section. The required data are extracted form Orbit database which is one of the most comprehensive databases in the field with powerful search engine and considerable analysis services. Information about more than 30 patent offices throughout the world is published in Orbit database.
Patent registration documents are classified in two main categories: finalized or "granted patents" and "published patent applications". The second class are applications which are published after peer review but are not totally approved yet. Indicators for both categories are defined and measured in StatNano database.
StatNano makes use of Orbit database for extracting raw or analyzed data about patents. The data are retrieved based on full text search by three main classes of granted patents and published patent applications.
First of all, the type of document (grant or published application) is determined. Then the abovementioned search string is utilized for identifying nanotechnology related patents. This string has been redefined according to Orbit data operators as what follows:
(((nano+ not nanosecond+) or (quantum dot+) or (quantum comput+) or (quantum 1d well+) or (quantum wire+) or qubit+ or (self assembl+) or c60 or fullerene+ or dendrimer+ or mesopor+ or (ultrathin film+) or graphene or (GMR and magnet+) or (giant magnetoresist+) or (langmuir blodgett)) OR (nano+ and ((single molecul+) or (atom+ scale) or (porous silicon) or (colloid+ particle+) or supermolecul+ or supramolecul+ or cyclodextrin+ or diamondoid+))) NOT (nanomol+ or nano2 or nano3 or nanog or nanogram or nanoliter or nanogr)
The search based on the string is undertaken for "Patent Claims". Furthermore, according the definition of nanotechnology patents, every patent that is classified under code B82 according to International Patent Classification (IPC) is added to the search results.
The time of publication is determined based on publication date which can be retrieved form "Date" section on Orbit webpages.
All countries which are registered as a patent's assignee are mentioned in the corresponding field. Hence, a given patent may be enumerated for more than on country (as it is the case for nan-articles). At the time of searching, the abbreviation for a particular country (such as KR for South Korea) is selected in "Assignee Country" in "More Fields" section. The following pictures show this process:
Sometimes, the assignee field has been left blank for a patent. In such cases, inventors are considered and the corresponding countries are regarded as relevant assignees. So, the abbreviation for a particular country (such as KR for South Korea) is selected in "Inventor Country" in "More Fields" section (See the below picture). Then, the search result with blank assignee are enumerated and the resultant quantity will be added to the result of search by assignee. This sum constitutes the number of patents for a given country.
Among Innovation indicators, USPTO granted patents and published patent applications (indicators, 2.3 and 2.4) are also measured by nano-material. The search method is overally similar to search procedure for nanotechnology patents but specific search strings are used for nano-materials in "Advanced Search" section. According to definition of nanotechnology patents (ISO/TS 18110 first edition 2015-08-15), the search based on specific strings are undertaken just in "Claim" section of patent documents.
Currently, 44 nano-materials have been defined in StatNano and their search string are included in the following table:
|
No. |
Nanomaterial/nanostructure |
Search String |
|
1 |
Nanoparticles |
nano?particle* or nano_particle* or nano?powder* or nano_powder* or (nano+ 1w particle*) or (nano+ 1w powder*) |
|
2 |
Nanocrystallines |
(Nano?crystal*) or (nano-crystal*) or (crystallin* 1D nanoparticle*) |
|
3 |
Nanotubes |
(NANOTUB* OR "NANO-TUB*" OR SWCNT* OR MWCNT* OR (NANO* 1W TUB*) or (CNT F nano*) or (CNT F layer*) or (CNT F film*) or (CNT F grapheme*) or (CNT S dispersion liquid) or (CNT S sheet*) or (CNT F carbon*) or (CNT F yarn*) or (CNT F angstrom*) or (CNT F catalyst*) or (CNT F powder*) or (CNT F composit*)) |
|
4 |
Nanoporous materials |
Nano?porous* or nano-porous* or (nono* 1d porous*) or (mesopor*) or (meso pore*) or (meso#por*) |
|
5 |
Porous silicon |
(Porous* silicon*) or (porous* 1d silicon*) |
|
6 |
Nanofoams |
(nano 1d foam) or (nanofoam*) or (nano-foam*) |
|
7 |
Aerogels |
(aerogel*) or (nanoaerogel*) |
|
8 |
Nanopores |
(nanopore* or nano-pore* or nanohole* or nano-hole* or(nano 1w pore*) or (nano 1w hole*)) |
|
9 |
Quantum dots |
(quantum* 1D dot*) |
|
10 |
Nanocomposites |
nanocomposite* or "nano-composite*" or (nano?composite*) or (nano* S composite*) |
|
11 |
Quantum wells |
quantum* 1D well* |
|
12 |
Super molecules |
(super_molecule*) or (supra_molecule*) |
|
13 |
Nanocolloids |
(colloid* particle*) or (nanocolloid) or (nano-colloid*) or (coloid* 1w particle*) or (nano 1w colloid) |
|
14 |
Nanofluids |
nanofluid or nano-fluid or nanofluids or nano-fluids or (nano 1w fluid) or (nano 1w fluids) |
|
15 |
Nanofluidic |
(nanofluidic* or nano-fluidic* or (nano 1d fluidic*)) |
|
16 |
Nanowires |
(nanowire*) or (nano-wire*) or (molecul* wire*) or (nano* 1D wire*) or (molecul* 1D wire*) |
|
17 |
Quantum Wires |
(quantum wire*) or (quantum * 1D wire*) or (quantum string*) |
|
18 |
Self-assembled Layers |
(self-assembl* layer*) or (self-assembl* monolayer*) or (self-assembl* multilayer*) or (self-assembl* mono-layer*) or (self-assembl* multi-layer*) or (self-assembl* 1d layer*) or (self-assembl* 1w monolayer*) or (self-assembl* 1w multilayer*) or (self-assembl* 1w mono-layer*) or (self-assembl* 1w multi-layer*) |
|
19 |
Langmuir Blodget |
(langmuir* blodget*) or (langmuir* 1w blodget*) |
|
20 |
Nanolayers |
(nanolayer*) or (nano-layer*) |
|
21 |
Nanoflims |
(ultrathin film*) or (ultra-thin film*) or (nanofilm*) or (nano-film*) or (ultrathin 1w film*) or (ultra-thin 1w film*) |
|
22 |
Nanocoatings |
(nanocoat*) or (nano-coat*) |
|
23 |
Fullerenes |
(buckybal* or c-60 or c-70 or ful?erene*) |
|
24 |
Quantum Computers |
(quantum 1D comput*) or (qubit*) or (quantum 1W processo*) or (Quantum 1D Machine) |
|
25 |
Dendrimers |
Dend?rime* |
|
26 |
Nanofibers |
(nano* 1D fiber*) or (nano* 2w fiber*) or (nano* 1D fibre*) or (nano* 2w fibre*) or (nanofiber*) or (nanofibre*) or (nano* 2D yarn*) or (nanofilament*) or (nano-filament*) or (nanofibril*) or (nano-fibril*) |
|
27 |
Nanocapsules |
(nano* 1w capsule*) or (nanocapsule*) or (nano-capsule*) |
|
28 |
Nanoshells |
(nanoshell*) or (nano-shell*) or (nano* shell*) or (nano-core-shel*) or (nanocore-shel*) or (nano core shel*) |
|
29 |
Nanoliposomes |
(nano-liposome*) or (nanoliposome*) or (nano liposome*) |
|
30 |
Nanomicelle |
nanomicelle* |
|
31 |
Graphene |
graphen* |
|
32 |
Graphyn |
graphyn* |
|
33 |
Borophen |
Borophen* |
|
34 |
Nanorodes |
(nano?rod*) or (Nano* 1D rod*) |
|
35 |
Nanospheres |
(nano?spher*) or (Nano* 1D spher*) |
|
36 |
Nanoclusters |
(nano?cluster*) or (Nano* 1D cluster*) |
|
37 |
Nanoribbons |
(nano?ribbon*) or (Nano* 1D ribbon*) or (nano?tape*) or (Nano* tape) |
|
38 |
Nanosheets |
nanosheet* or (nano* 1W sheet*) or nanoplate* or (nano* 1W plate*) or (nanfoil* or nano-foil* or nanoflake* or nano-flake*) |
|
39 |
Nanoelectromechanical Systems |
((nanoelectromechanic* system*) or (nano-electromechanic* system*) or (nano* 1W electromechanic* 1W system*) or (NEMS)) |
|
40 |
Nanoonions |
nanoonion* or (nano-onion*) or nano* onion* |
|
41 |
Nanohorns |
(nanohorn* or nano-horn* or (nano* 2w horn*)) |
|
42 |
Nanostars |
(nanostar* or nano-star* or (nano* star) or (nano 1w star)) |
|
43 |
Diamondiod |
(diamondoid* or nanodiamond* or nano-diamond* or (nano 1d diamond*)) |
|
44 |
Nanolayers-Nanofilms |
(nanolayer*) or (nano-layer*) or (ultrathin film*) or (ultra-thin film*) or (nanofilm*) or (nano-film*) or (ultrathin 1w film*) or (ultra-thin 1w film*) or (nanocoat*) or (nano-coat*) |
In the "Keyword" section, the "Claims" option is selected from left bar and the search string is written in the right cell as it is shown in the below picture.
The date for searching is patents' publication date. This element is entered in the "Date" section. For example in the following picture, the patents published in 2017 would be retrieved by entering date between 2017-01-01 and 2017-12-31. All search are undertaken in "Full Text" section.
After clicking the "Full text" option (see picture above), the user can select patent office(s). For each office, it is possible to select granted patents (column B) and/or published patent applications (column A). After selecting type of document, one has to click "Ok" button to save changes (see the below picture).
After saving setting and clicking "Search" button, one can classify the result by the type of document and by patent office by clicking "All" button as it is shown in the following picture.
In the industry section, the only nano-related indicator is the number of national standards and other indicators in this section are general ones. Several other indicators such as the number of products, active companies and the market value can be defined in this section, nevertheless, these indicators are not measured currently due to lack of international reliable database and comparable data for different countries. However, the product databank is designed as a separate section of StatNano website for monitoring commercialization and applications of nanotechnology. Detailed information about this databank can be found in the related section of the website.
Definition: Standard is a document, established by consensus and approved by a recognized body that provides, for common and repeated use, rules, guidelines or characteristics for activities or their results, aimed at the achievement of the optimum degree of order in a given context.
National nanotechnology standard is a nanotechnology related standard that is adopted by a national standards body and made available to the public.
Methodology of measurement: Nanotechnology standards are found and extracted using a set of keywords related to this field. The main sources are websites of national and international organizations responsible for developing and issuing standards. In addition, other sources such as analytic reports and websites for standards' sale are monitored for finding new standards, however the crucial criterion for a standard to be recorded in the database is the accessibility of its information in the website of official corresponding organization. National standard organizations in countries which are members or observers of ISO/TC 229 are monitored continually. Moreover, standardization activities of countries which have national plans or roadmaps in the field of nanotechnology are considered periodically.
So, any national or international standard whose information is accessible in the responsible organization website in English language and keywords related to nanotechnology have been cited in its title and/or abstract will be recorded in the database.
The registered standards are retrieved dynamically from the databank and shown by date and country. More information about standard databank can be found in the related section in the StatNano website.