Catégories
EN

Researchers’ Views on Preprints and Open Access Publishing: Results From a Free-Answer Survey of Japanese Molecular Biologists

Authors : Harufumi Tamazawa, Kazuki Ide, Kazuhisa Kamegai

A survey conducted in 2022 amongst members of the Molecular Biology Society of Japan (n = 633) about preprints and open access journals included qualitative data from free-response answers (n = 161). Analysis of the free-form responses suggests that researchers believe that peer review of papers is the foundation for ensuring the credibility of research content.

The trust-building mechanism achieved through peer review shapes the research community. For this reason, researchers are extremely cautious about preprints that have not undergone peer review within their own fields.

This foundation has fostered a sense of responsibility within the community, and this sense of responsibility, which is being fulfilled by ensuring the quality of research, is a mixture of both a sense of responsibility towards the community itself and a sense of responsibility towards the outside world, namely the relationship between researchers and society.

Researchers also appear to view the rise in Article Processing Charges (APCs) as a problem for the entire community, rather than simply an issue for individual researchers. In the field of molecular biology, where collaborative research between universities and companies is common, differences in normative awareness based on position are reflected in the various attitudes towards preprints and open access.

URL : Researchers’ Views on Preprints and Open Access Publishing: Results From a Free-Answer Survey of Japanese Molecular Biologists

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1002/leap.2039

Catégories
EN

Investigation and Development of the Workflow to Clarify Conditions of Use for Research Data Publishing in Japan

Authors : Yasuyuki Minamiyama, Ui Ikeuchi, Kunihiko Ueshima, Nobuya Okayama, Hideaki Takeda

With the recent Open Science movement and the rise of data-intensive science, many efforts are in progress to publish research data on the web. To reuse published research data in different fields, they must be made more generalized, interoperable, and machine-readable.

Among the various issues related to data publishing, the conditions of use are directly related to their reuse potential. We show herein the types of external constraints and conditions of use in research data publishing in a Japanese context through the analysis of the interview and questionnaire for practitioners.

Although the conditions of research data use have been discussed only in terms of their legal constraints, we organize the inclusion of the non-legal constraints and data holders’ actual requirements.

Furthermore, we develop practical guideline for examining effective data publishing flow with licensing scenarios. This effort can be positioned to develop an infrastructure for data-intensive science, which will contribute to the realization of Open Science.

URL : Investigation and Development of the Workflow to Clarify Conditions of Use for Research Data Publishing in Japan

DOI : http://doi.org/10.5334/dsj-2020-053

Catégories
EN

Science created by crowds: a case study of science crowdfunding in Japan

Authors : Yuko Ikkatai, Euan McKay, Hiromi M. Yokoyama

“Science crowdfunding” is a research funding system in which members of the public make small financial contributions towards a research project via the Internet. We compared the more common research process involving public research funding with science crowdfunding.

In the former, academic-peer communities review the research carried out whereas the Crowd Community, an aggregation of backers, carries out this function in the latter. In this paper, we propose that science crowdfunding can be successfully used to generate “crowd-supported science” by means of this Crowd Community.

URL : Science created by crowds: a case study of science crowdfunding in Japan

Alternative location : https://jcom.sissa.it/archive/17/03/JCOM_1703_2018_A06

Catégories
EN

Science Metadata Management, Interoperability and Data Citations of the National Institute of Polar Research, Japan

Authors : M. Kanao, M. Okada, J. Friddel, A. Kadokura

The Polar Data Centre (PDC) of the National Institute of Polar Research (NIPR) has a responsibility to manage polar science data as part of the National Antarctic Data Centre and the Science Committee on Antarctic Research. During the International Polar Year (IPY 2007–2008), a remarkable number of data/metadata involving multi-disciplinary science activities were compiled.

Although the long-term stewardship of the accumulation of metadata falls to the data center of NIPR, the work has been in collaboration with the Global Change Master Directory, the Polar Information Commons, the World Data System and other data science bodies/communities under the International Council for Science.

In addition, links with other data centers, such as the Data Integration and Analysis System Program of the Global Earth Observation System of Systems and the Polar Data Catalogue of Canada were initiated in 2014 using the Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting. The metadata compiled by the PDC were recently modified using an automatic attributing system and DataCite through the Japan Link Center.

URL : Science Metadata Management, Interoperability and Data Citations of the National Institute of Polar Research, Japan

DOI : http://doi.org/10.5334/dsj-2018-001

Catégories
Non classé

Infrastructure Development for Strengthening the Capacity of International…

Infrastructure Development for Strengthening the Capacity of International Scholarly Communication :

« Japan has achieved social and economic growth through its strengths in science and technology. However, in the face of globalisation, various factors, including the continued appreciation of the yen, the emerging economic powers, and a declining birth rate combined with an aging population have weakened Japan’s competitiveness in the world and resulted in a prevalent sense of stagnation in society.

Intellectual assets are among such important resources for Japan, which is a country with limited material resources, that greater efforts on the promotion of science and technology, and the promotion of creative and forward-looking scientific research, in particular, have to be taken than ever in order to enhance Japan’s international competitiveness.

To promote scientific research, it is essential that timely and wide access to information be guaranteed to those who need it. At the same time, it is important to promptly publish and distribute outstanding research results domestically and internationally, and to make use of them in society. Doing so will increase Japan’s intellectual presence and attract excellent researchers from around the world, leading to further development of science in Japan and stimulation of society as a whole. »

URL : http://www.mext.go.jp/component/b_menu/shingi/toushin/__icsFiles/afieldfile/2012/10/25/1323890_4_2.pdf

Catégories
status

Trends of the Institutional Repositories on Agricultural Universities…

Trends of the Institutional Repositories on Agricultural Universities in Japan :

This paper discusses the present status of institutional repositories in Agricultural Universities in Japan as found in a survey conducted in January 2010. There are over seventy of agricultural universities in Japan which include the broad areas related to agriculture such as the faculty and graduate schools of Agriculture, Veterinary Medicine, Life Science, Fisheries Sciences, Agricultural Resource Sciences, Horticulture, Marine Science and Technology, Textile Science and Technology, and Environmental Studies. The experimental project of institutional repositories was started in 2004 and since then, over 100 universities have joined the National Institute of Informatics Institutional Repositories Program. The contents of institutional repositories consist of journal articles, dissertations, bulletins, meeting articles, documents for meetings, books, technical reports, magazine articles, preprints, learning materials, data/datasets, software and other materials. The number and type of contents of institutional repositories differ between each agricultural university. The future direction of institutional repositories of agricultural universities in Japan is also discussed and concludes the paper.

URL : http://journals.sfu.ca/iaald/index.php/aginfo/article/view/202