# Infrastructure Development for Strengthening the Capacity of International Scholarly Communication [Overview]

(Science Information Infrastructure Working Group, Research Environment Infrastructure Group, Subdivision on Science, Council for Science and Technology, July 2012)

1. Development of Scientific Information Infrastructure and Strengthening of Japan's Scholarly Communication

### a. Background

An improved infrastructure for scholarly communication is indispensable for the promotion of science, in researchers' sharing their research results, increasing efficiency of research activities, disseminating research results in society, implementing educational programs to make use of research results, and passing research results to future generations.

With the rapid development of computer and network technology, scholarly communication has been generally digitalised. While, electronic journals are already the mainstream in natural science, the transition to electronic journals is yet to come in the humanities and social sciences.

Open access, which makes necessary research materials freely available online, is at the focus of immense international concern for the purpose of further improving scholarly communication.

### b. Current Status

Although Japan’s research produces results that are ranked at the world top level in a large number of scientific fields, the number of the journals that are known worldwide are small. As a result, about 80% of papers written by researchers in Japan are published in journals published abroad. Japan has failed to promote journals as a platform for its researchers to take the initiative in scholarly communication.

The promotion of the journals originating in Japan that will be internationally influential is essential in order to increase Japan's intellectual presence, followed by quality submissions from overseas, and leading to the country's status as the centre of excellence in the relevant research areas.

In developing a future-oriented infrastructure for scholarly communication, it is hoped to accelerate a variety of initiatives that include conversion to digital online communication and appreciation the ideal of open access, with a view to the construction of "knowledge infrastructure" proposed in the Fourth Science and Technology Basic Plan.

### c. Challenges

As we try to foster internationally influential Japanese journals, JSPS's Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research, which has been limited to covering the publishing expenditures of print-based journals, is hoped that improvements will be made to help strengthen the capacity of international scholarly communication.

We should make proactive efforts to make open access possible. Along with the publication of open access journals, it is also beneficial to utilise institutional repositories that are launched and operated at universities and other institutions.

In order to accelerate the promotion of institutional repositories, which disseminate and distribute the results of education and research conducted at universities and research institutions, it is necessary to further penetrate the recognition that development and strengthening of institutional repositories are important for the institutions which account for themselves in terms of their educational and research activities.

In strengthening Japan's scholarly communication infrastructure, direct grants to the publishing project by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) will be complemented for the improvements of the environment by the Japan Science And Technology Agency (JST), the National Institute Of Informatics (NII) and the National Diet Library (NDL), and these institutions are expected to cooperate and share responsibilities.