The original article published in Japanese ( https://current.ndl.go.jp/e2785 ).
Current Awareness-E No.500
May 1, 2025
FY2024 Survey of Academic Societies on the Collection and Preservation of Academic Information
The National Diet Library (NDL) conducts a triennial questionnaire survey targeting academic societies across humanities, social sciences, and all other scholarly fields in Japan. The survey examines the status of print publication, digitization, and online publication of journals or other information resources. The FY2024 survey was conducted from July 17 to October 16, 2024, and drew responses from 1,161 organizations. This article presents a summary of the results.
Details of how the survey was implemented and the results aggregated are published on the NDL website. Please also refer to that site for an overview of the NDL’s collection of and access to publications from academic societies. (in Japanese only)
●Status of legal deposits of print publications and online publications
Question 2 inquires about the deposit of print publications under the legal deposit system, and Question 3 inquires about the deposit of e-books and e-journals under the E-Legal Deposit System of Online Publications. These questions also inquire as to the existence of publications that have yet to be deposited with the NDL and the reasons for the delay in doing so.
More than 10% of the organizations have print publications that have yet to be deposited with the NDL. Of these, approximately 10% answered that they were unaware of the legal deposit system, and over 60% indicated that they were unaware that their publications were subject to legal deposit.
Approximately 10% of the organizations reported having online publications (e-books and e-journals) that have not been collected by the NDL. Of these, around 40% answered that they were unaware of the E-Legal Deposit System of Online Publications, and approximately 45% indicated that they were unaware that their online publications were subject to collection. It should be noted that online publications published on platforms such as J-STAGE or institutional repositories are exempt from collection, and organizations falling into this category account for about 50% of the cases.
●Status of e-publication and digitization of academic society journals
Question 4 asks about the status of electronic publication of and specifications for journals published in either Japanese or English. Question 5 asks about the digitization of and specifications for journals published in print as well as reasons for not digitizing.
For Japanese-language journals, about 65% of organizations publish all or some titles as e-journals. Of the organizations that do not digitize, about 30% responded that e-publishing is planned or under consideration. For English-language journals, about 90% of the organizations publish all or some titles as e-journals. Regarding the specifications for journals, more than 10% of organizations reported that their e-journals do not include text data. (§) (Here and hereafter, § indicates that multiple responses were permitted.)
About 45% of the organizations digitize all journals, while about 15% have no plans to digitize. About 20% digitize all conference abstracts and proceedings, while nearly 40% have no plans to digitize. Major barriers to digitization included insufficient budget and personnel (about 65%) and copyright issues (about 35%). (§) Regarding the specifications for journals, over 40% of the organizations indicated that some digitized materials either do not include text data or were unclear as to whether text data is included. (§)
●Open access practices
Question 8 asks about the availability of journals published electronically in Japanese or English as well as open access policies.
Approximately 40% of the organizations publishing Japanese-language journals and just under 60% of those publishing English-language journals issue journals (e-journals) that are made publicly available immediately and free of charge. (§) For Japanese-language journals, more than 20% of the organizations allow an author accepted manuscript (AAM) or its published version to be registered in institutional repositories, etc., while about 40% prohibit such registration. (§) However, organizations that allow immediate repository registration account for less than 10% of either Japanese- or English-language journals. (§) Many organizations responded that they have no specific policy regarding publishing on preprint servers for either Japanese- or English-language journals.
●Website collection by the NDL Web Archiving Project (WARP)
Question 10 asks whether the organizations were aware of the NDL Web Archiving Project (WARP) and whether they would like the NDL to archive their websites by WARP.
Almost 60% of the organizations answered that they were unaware of WARP, and over 40% expressed a desire or interest in having their content archived by WARP.
●What the survey results show
There is a clear need to inform academic societies about publications that are subject to deposit or collection under the legal deposit system and E-Legal Deposit System for Online Publications. In addition, a major factor hindering the digitization of print publications by academic societies is a lack of budget and personnel, indicating that support in this area directed toward these societies is also needed.
Currently, in addition to the E-Legal Deposit System for Online Publications, the NDL offers the option of automatic collection of websites through WARP. If requested, the NDL will prioritize digitization of a society’s journals. Digitized materials are made publicly available in the NDL Digital Collections and can be accessed onsite at the NDL. If certain conditions are met—such as being difficult to obtain—even materials under copyright can be accessed through the Digitized Contents Transmission Service for individuals and libraries. This allows registered NDL users residing in Japan as well as participating public and university libraries to use the materials. In addition, the NDL is gradually creating full-text data for digitized materials published in the NDL Digital Collections and provides a full-text search service. The results of this survey support our intent to continue advancing these initiatives.
The Cabinet Office has announced a policy requiring researchers who receive competitive research funding to make their scholarly articles publicly available in institutional repositories or similar platforms immediately after publication in academic journals. In response, the Japan Consortium for Open Access Repository (JPCOAR) has developed a guideline for formulating and publishing copyright policies to facilitate immediate open access to scholarly information throughout Japan and to encourage academic societies to develop copyright policies. In my view, the formulation of a copyright policy by each academic society could further advance open access as well as promote digitization.
Kuroda Takanori
Business, Science and Technology Division,
Reader Services and Collections Department,
National Diet Library
Translated by
Research and Information Section,
Library Support Division,
Kansai-kan of the National Diet Library
Note: Additional details, including the survey questions, have been added in the English translation.
*References are not translated and remain in Japanese. Additional English references have been added.
Ref:
“学協会アンケート”. NDL.
https://www.ndl.go.jp/collect/tech/society/questionnaire
“学協会刊行物に関するQ&A”. NDL.
https://www.ndl.go.jp/collect/tech/society/qa
“国立国会図書館未収かつ入手困難資料のデータ収集事業へのご協力のお願い”. NDL.
https://www.ndl.go.jp/preservation/digitization/data-acceptance
“学協会刊行物の収集と利用について”. NDL.
https://www.ndl.go.jp/collect/tech/society
学術論文等の即時オープンアクセスの実現に向けた基本方針. 統合イノベーション戦略推進会議, 2024, 3p.
https://www8.cao.go.jp/cstp/oa_240216.pdf
National Policy on Promoting Open Access to Publicly Funded Scholarly Publications and Scientific Data. The Integrated Innovation Strategy Promotion Council, 2024, 4p.
https://www8.cao.go.jp/cstp/oa_240216_en.pdf
“著作権ポリシー策定・公開ガイドライン”. JPCOAR.
https://jpcoar.repo.nii.ac.jp/records/2000542
“図書館向けデジタル化資料送信サービス”. NDL.
https://www.ndl.go.jp/use/digital_transmission
“個人向けデジタル化資料送信サービス”. NDL.
https://www.ndl.go.jp/use/digital_transmission/individuals_index
“Digitized Contents Transmission Service for Individuals”. NDL.
https://www.ndl.go.jp/en/use/digital_transmission_individuals
恒久的保存のための取組 学協会アンケートの実施に伴う収集強化等. NDL, 2022, 17p.
https://www.ndl.go.jp/file/collect/tech/council/proc15/kashin15_04.pdf
