Application of bibliometric analysis to market analysis

This article consists of a collection of slides. Bibliometric analyses have been applied in a wide variety of fields, including the measurement of academic outcomes, policy assessments, and R&D management of academic research institutes. As a methodology for market analysis, estimations with patent numbers and backward citation of scientific papers by patents have been used. However, new tools for analyzing market size and market formation more precisely are anticipated. We have investigated the applicability of bibliometric analyses to the assessment of the research market, for which growth could be driven by scientific innovations developed by academic researchers. For this purpose, we have focused on cell culture technologies for stem cells because the global standardization of culture technology tends to be driven by academic researchers, and it could have a significant influence on market formation. Bibliometric data was obtained from SciVerse Scopus (Elsevier B.V.) by using the Medical subject headings (MeSH) to find terms related to cell culture and stem cells. We have verified the secular change in the number of papers within the fields of stem cell research and cell culture technique research. Additionally, we have verified the number of papers cited by each research institute and the institutes which have cited the paper of key institutes to elucidate the relationships between institutes for the global standardization of culture technology. The growth rate of the market was estimated by the analysis of academic research papers. The standardization process was analyzed based on paper citations between academic institutes. The results obtained from bibliometric analyses and a series of interviews were likely to be consistent with the growth rate of the market and standardization process of culture technolo