Technological Knowledge Illustrated via Maps

A huge amount of literature is being published nowadays. In R & D departments a lot of pages have to be read. Managers have to find out what is essential for the developments in their companies. They have to analyse either the latest publications in literature databases or in patent databases. The recently published patents contain essential information about technological developments and give information of the present state. The bibliometric method based on co - word analysis is a very useful tool to structure and visualise several thousands of documents and to extract specific information out of large collections of data of various nature. This method - so called BibTechMon - shows patterns and connections of information and subtopics and gives answers to key questions. Which technologies are new in which field? Which trends can be recognised? Which companies are leaders in which technologies? Answers to these questions are important for all R & D departments and for the management too. In the following contribution the emphasis lies on the application of this method for mapping the technological knowledge, developments and competition.