Report:Thomson Innovation/Import, Export, and Download/Export Functions
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Export Functions
The exporting feature in Innovation can be performed on a set documents any time they are displayed in a list, whether it is a Results Set (hit list), Marked List (a temporary list), or a Work File (a saved list). (For more information about Marked Lists and Work Files, see Flagging Results and Saving Results.) A maximum of 60,000 patent records with the Analyst subscription (with some restrictions), 30,000 records with the Pro subscription, and 1,000 records with the Express subscription may be exported. For business and literature collections, the export limit is 1,000 documents at one time for any subscription level.
This feature allows users to extract data from the records into a number of different file formats, creating instant databases (in the form of spreadsheets) that can be used to manipulate search results for outside analysis purposes, or reports which can be used to present the search results to another recipient. Appropriately, the tab on the Result Set menu (which appears above every list of new or saved documents in Innovation) is called “Exports & Reports.”
Once selected, this feature opens a dialog window displaying the various options for the tool. A number of different file formats are available, and users can add or subtract data fields from the list of those to be exported. The final product may be downloaded (optionally as a zip file), or e-mailed to the user.
Within the Content/Field Options box, a number of options appear in blue text. These options represent pre-selected groups of data fields that may be convenient to export together. For example, choosing the “biblio + abstract” option is a shortcut that will import the patent number, title, date, assignee, inventor, classification, and abstract fields into the Chosen Fields selection box. Not all of these pre-defined field collections are available for every file format, however, and the menu will change according to which file format is selected. (Detailed descriptions of the content of each pre-defined data collection, and a summary of which collections are available for download in which file formats, can be found in the Exports & Reports help page.)
The File Format Options menu allows the user to select the desired download format. Available file formats include:
| Format | Associated Program | Possible Use |
| Comma-separated (.CSV) Tab-separated (.TSV) |
Microsoft Excel (spreadsheet) | Database, potentially used for graphing and analysis applications (may be imported into visualization or data-cleaning programs). |
| Text (.TXT) | Notepad | Report, plain text only (no formatting or graphics). |
| HTML HTML with (hyperlinked) Table of Contents |
Web browser | Report, can be viewed in a web browsers, with formatting and images. |
| XML (Extensible Markup Language) | Web browser | Database and/or Reports. XML data is tagged in a universal markup language that allows users to create their own database files, to be used with internal searching or viewing software. |
| ResearchSoft (RIS) | Thomson ResearchSoft | Database, for use in the Thomson Reuters proprietary tool ResearchSoft, which is desktop software used to manage bibliographies. |
| BizInt SmartCharts (.CSV) | BizInt SmartCharts for Patents | Database, for use in BizInt SmartCharts, a management and analysis tool for Patent Data. |
| Adobe Acrobat or Viewer | Report, a common file format used to preserve the original report formatting across different systems. (PDF files can only be viewed with Adobe products.) | |
| RTF (Rich Text Format) | Microsoft Word or other word processor | Report, more formatting is available than with plain ASCII text. |
| Spotfire (CSV) | Spotfire | According to Thomson Innovation help materials, this option produces "a CSV variant for use in TIBCO Spotfire Analytics." |
| Thomson Data Analyzer | Thomson Data Analyzer | This option produces a text file variant for use in Thomson Data Analyzer, a product similar to VantagePoint. |
Below are two examples of exported data in selected file formats. The first figure below shows a .CSV exported spreadsheet, and the second shows an HTML report.
Another option that can be chosen from the Exports and Reports window is the checkbox named “Create duplicate records for a multi-value field.” This option comes into play when the spreadsheet formats, such as .CSV, are chosen. It is convenient when users wish to ensure that their spreadsheets contain only one unique data point per cell, even if multiple data points might exist for that field. The Innovation help file provides the following example: say a user wishes to perform analysis on inventors in a dataset, but some of the documents list multiple inventors. To ensure that each inventor name is treated individually, this box should be selected. Because this feature can only be applied to one data field at a time, the “inventor” field must then be chosen from the list of eligible data fields in the feature’s drop-down menu.
Once an export order is submitted, the user is directed to the My Account -> Order Status page, where they can view the status of the current order and download previously exported files for up to 30 days. Users can also add e-mail recipients to a processing order to receive notifications about the order's status.
Editor's Note:Innovation offers some convenient features in its export tool. For example, it is useful to be able to load collections of pre-defined data fields. It's also nice to be able to pre-define an export template, and set default export fields right from the dialog window.
The create duplicate records option is unusual, and can be useful for analysis projects; good analysis programs already have functions to “clean” exported data that appears with multiple data points to a cell.
In an update to the product after the initial release, the Order Status page allows users to keep track of previous orders. One of the strong suits of Thomson Innovation is that it provides many advanced tracking and management features to allow searchers and support staff to manage projects from an administrative standpoint.
