A Scientometric Study of Fuel Cell Based on Paper and Patent Analysis

The study utilizes bibliometrics to explore papers and patents in the field of fuel cell to examine the scientific and technical development in the area. The research data were retrieved from the WOS database and USPTO patent data from the period between 1991 and 2010, which consists of 20,758 papers and 8,112 patents. The authors analyzed numbers of papers and patents to examine the trends in the papers and patents in different countries, organizations and individuals. The results indicate upward growth in both papers and patents in fuel cell, with a higher growth rate for papers. The study shows that major paper and patent output are concentrated in a small number of countries. An imbalance exists between the number of papers published and the patents granted in organizations. The organizations that published papers and patents vary in type and category. Very few individual researchers are able to produce high numbers of both papers and patents.