respol-data-analysis

Data Analysis (respol-data-analysis)

When to trigger

• Patent/bibliometric variables are built but the construction steps are not documented or reproducible
• Headline results exist but robustness to alternative measures and specifications is thin
• A count outcome (patents, citations) is run with OLS instead of an appropriate count model
• Qualitative coding lacks a transparent coding scheme or inter-coder reliability
• A referee says results are "not robust," "driven by outliers/one sector," or "the data are a black box"

The Research Policy analysis bar

RP referees know innovation data intimately and distrust opaque pipelines. The two things they probe hardest are how the variables were built (especially patent/bibliometric ones) and whether the finding survives the obvious alternatives. Counts and skewed distributions are the norm in innovation data, so estimators must respect that; and because most RP indicators are noisy proxies, robustness is not optional decoration — it is how you show the innovation claim, not the measure's artifacts, drives the result.

Building and modeling innovation data

Variable construction (document everything)

• For patents/citations: record office, family definition, matching algorithm to firms/regions/inventors, name-disambiguation method, and truncation window. A referee should be able to rebuild the variable from the description plus the deposited code.
• For composite indicators (originality, generality, technological proximity): state the formula and the classification scheme (IPC/CPC) and version used.
• Flag and justify any sample restrictions (years, sectors, minimum patent counts) — selection on the dependent variable is a common RP rejection cause.

Estimation that fits innovation outcomes

• Patent/citation counts: Poisson/negative binomial (or fixed-effects Poisson / PPML) rather than logging-plus-OLS, which mishandles zeros and Jensen's inequality. Address over-dispersion and excess zeros explicitly.
• Skewed continuous outcomes: justify transformation and report level results.
• Panels: choose FE vs. RE on substantive grounds (Hausman is a guide, not a verdict) and cluster at the level of treatment/assignment; address few-cluster inference where relevant.
• Causal designs: report the diagnostics the design demands (pre-trends/event study for DID, first stage and weak-IV-robust inference for IV, density and bandwidth robustness for RDD).

Qualitative analysis

• Make the coding scheme explicit; report how codes became constructs; report inter-coder agreement where multiple coders; show a data-structure/evidence table linking quotes to constructs.

Robustness that persuades RP

• Alternative measures of the key innovation construct (e.g., patent count vs. citation-weighted vs. family size).
• Alternative specifications, samples (drop dominant sector/period), and estimators.
• A direct test that the result is not an artifact of the indicator's known bias (e.g., truncation, propensity to patent).

Checklist

• Every patent/bibliometric variable is documented well enough to rebuild from the text + code
• Count outcomes use count models, not log-OLS hacks; zeros and over-dispersion handled
• Panel FE/RE and clustering choices are justified substantively
• Causal designs report their required diagnostics
• Qualitative coding scheme and reliability are transparent
• Robustness varies the key innovation measure, not just controls
• At least one check targets the indicator's known bias directly
• A reproducibility package (data sources + code) is assembled or planned

Anti-patterns

• A patent-variable "black box" no referee could reconstruct
• Logging patent counts and running OLS instead of a count model
• Robustness that only adds controls and never varies the innovation measure
• Selecting the sample on the outcome (only patenting firms) without addressing it
• Qualitative findings with no visible coding scheme or evidence table
• Reporting only the specification that "works"

Output format

【Journal】Research Policy
【Skill】respol-data-analysis
【Variable build】patent/bibliometric construction documented? [Y/N]
【Estimator】count/panel/causal choice + why it fits the outcome
【Diagnostics】design-required checks reported
【Robustness】alternative measures + specs + bias-targeted check
【Reproducibility】data sources + code package status
【Verdict】pass / revise / reroute
【Next skill】respol-contribution-framing