특허 피인용 지수(CPP) 기반 스타 과학자 선정 및연구 성과 질적 수준 비교 연구

This study begins with the recognition that conventional citation-based evaluation frameworks do not sufficiently capture researchers’ industrial contributions. To address this issue, the study proposes a method for identifying star scientists using the Cites per Patent (CPP) index and empirically verifies the validity of this approach. The analysis targets patents granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) to university-affiliated inventors between 2013 and 2022. Researchers who ranked in the top 1% based on CPP were defined as star scientists and compared with general researchers. Furthermore, the patent performance of star scientists was evaluated in comparison with Clarivate Analytics’ Highly Cited Researchers (HCRs) in terms of qualitative indicators. The analysis revealed that CPP-based star scientists demonstrated a clear qualitative superiority in terms of the Patent Quality Index (PQI), outperforming not only general researchers but also HCRs. These results suggest that CPP is a valid quantitative indicator for measuring researchers’ technological influence and industrial performance. Moreover, the findings underscore the need for an integrated evaluation framework that considers both publication-based and patent-based metrics. By quantitatively analyzing researchers’ technological and industrial achievements using patent-based indicators, this study offers an alternative to existing evaluation models and provides meaningful insights for both academic and policy contexts.