Library science

Marketing

Linguistics

Philosophy

Computer science

Typology

Anthropology

Business

Frontier

Mathematics

Political science

Domain (mathematical analysis)

Sociology

Citation

Mathematical analysis

Data science

Intellectual property

Metric (unit)

Dual (grammatical number)

Science

The extent to which scientific advances support marketplace inventions is largely unknown. We study 4.8 million U.S. patents and 32 million research articles to determine the minimum citation distance between patented inventions and prior scientific advances. We find that most cited research articles (80%) link forward to a future patent. Similarly, most patents (61%) link backward to a prior research article. Linked papers and patents typically stand 2 to 4 degrees distant from the other domain. Yet, advances directly along the patent-paper boundary are notably more impactful within their own domains. The distance metric further provides a typology of the fields, institutions, and individuals involved in science-to-technology linkages. Overall, the findings are consistent with theories that emphasize substantial and fruitful connections between patenting and prior scientific inquiry.

The dual frontier: Patented inventions and prior scientific advance