The volume and complexity of patent citations make it a difficult area to efficiently navigate. However, with the right tools, it is also an exceptionally valuable one. An accurate citation analysis requires calculations that involve the analysis of a very large number of patents where data quality and internationally broad content is paramount. Understanding a large dataset like this can be difficult, and just a few years ago neither the big data analytics tools accessible for most users or the lack of fully global data collections allowed for it. More…