The characteristics and impacts of scientific publications in biotechnology research referenced in standards

•Scientific publications referenced in standards receive a higher number of citations.•These publications also have a longer lifecycle than articles in a comparison group.•Follow-up research based on articles referenced in standards receives more citations.

The integration of research papers in standards has not yet been addressed using quantitative approaches. This paper investigates the characteristics of research articles on biotechnology related to standards. The analysis is based on a study of standards produced by the standardization consortia BioSharing. Research, i.e. scientific articles, included in standards is more likely to lead to follow-up research and diffusion over a longer period of time than comparable scientific publications measured by the number of citations relative to most-related articles. In addition, research relying on scientific publications referenced in standards is more valuable for the research progress.