Tech Mining
Tech mining is the text mining of science and technology information—the publication, patent, and proposal databases that record the world's research and invention—to extract competitive technical intelligence. Coined by Alan Porter and Scott Cunningham, it turns large, fielded bibliographic corpora into actionable answers about who is doing what, where, with whom, and along which trajectories. By extracting entities such as authors, institutions, countries, keywords, and assignees and analysing their co-occurrence over time, tech mining profiles emerging technologies, maps research landscapes, and supports R&D management and innovation policy decisions.
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Method map
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Sources
- Porter, A. L., & Cunningham, S. W. (2005). Tech Mining: Exploiting New Technologies for Competitive Advantage. Wiley. ISBN: 9780471475675
- Porter, A. L. (2007). How tech mining can enhance R&D management. Research-Technology Management, 50(2), 15-20. DOI: 10.1080/08956308.2007.11657424 ↗
How to cite this page
ScholarGate. (2026, June 22). Tech Mining (Text Mining of Science and Technology Information). ScholarGate. https://scholargate.app/en/science-technology-studies/tech-mining-analysis
Which method?
Set this method beside its closest kin and read them side by side — the library lays the books on the table; the choice is yours.
- bibliometrix-assisted science mappingScientometrics↔ compare
- Patent AnalysisScience Technology Studies↔ compare
- Science MappingBibliometrics↔ compare
- Technological Innovation SystemsScience Technology Studies↔ compare