The Characteristics Of Inputs And Outputs Of Nanotechnology Research Funded By National Science Foundation

In this paper, scientometric methods were used to explore the characteristics of inputs and outputs of nanotechnology research funded by National Science Foundation(NSF). The data comes from nanotechnology research and development expenditure of National Nanotechnology Initiative, NSF nano-awards, nano-related papers collected by Web of Science and funded by NSF.The results are shown as follows:(1) Both nanotechnology research and development expenditure and the number of nano-related papers funded by NSF increase with time changes, while the number of NSF nano-awards decreases.(2) The unbalanced distributions of NSF nano-awards and papers funded by NSF at levels of institutions, authors and Web of Science categories are presented respectively.(3) The value of metric indicators(such as Total Times Cited, Average Cites per Paper, H-index) of nano-related papers funded by NSF is bigger than that of papers with no funds.Results of the study suggest that, in the activities of nanotechnology research and development, NSF positively promotes knowledge innovation and the influence of scientific papers. Furthermore, it indicates that strategic funding policy is positive to scientific development.