This reliance on academic research is most pronounced in biology and biomedical fields. In physics and engineering, however, citations in industrially authored publications more frequently refer to industrial articles, possibly indicating a major industrial strength in these fields. Patents are dominated by the industrial sector, patenting being viewed as one of the output indicators of scientific and innovative activities in the economy. About two-thirds of the citations made reference to biomedical research and clinical medicine publications. The academic sector's share of all U.S. patent awards rose to 3 percent, from less than half that in 1991 and 1 percent in 1980.
Academic patents reflect the field distribution of academic research.
In 1993, three patent use classes accounted for one-quarter of all academic patents. All three were related to biomedical activity. U.S. industry is spending less on basic research and relying more on universities and government laboratories for this work. Between 1991 and 1995, the amount of funds spent by industry to perform basic research declined at an average annual rate of 4.6 percent. Most of the credits have been claimed by manufacturing firms, but the nonmanufacturing share has risen from less than 20 percent to about 24 percent of the total.