【Background】
IRDB is NII's core scholarly information infrastructure, aggregating metadata from institutional repositories developed and operated by universities and research institutions throughout Japan. It plays a central role in supporting the dissemination and visibility of Japanese research outputs. With the integration of metadata stored in IRDB into OpenAlex, one of the world's largest open scholarly information databases, Japanese research outputs have become widely available through OpenAlex, significantly enhancing their discoverability and reuse. This collaboration is driven by the strategic goal of promoting open access to diverse research outputs, including scholarly publications and research data, through Japan's institutional repositories, while maximizing the discoverability of Japanese research outputs within the global scholarly information infrastructure. This initiative is based on the Basic Policy on Promoting Open Access to Publicly Funded Scholarly Publications and Scientific Data (*3), adopted by the Cabinet Office's Integrated Innovation Strategy Promotion Council in February 2024. It will help transform Japanese research outputs into "machineactionable knowledge assets" for the AI era. This collaboration is an initiative to integrate Japanese research outputs into the global scholarly information infrastructure, significantly enhancing their international discoverability.
【Overview of the Initiative】
Approximately 5.45 million records held in IRDB underwent data-quality improvement processes, including the consolidation of duplicate records and the exclusion of records for deleted content. As a result, metadata records for nearly 4 million Japanese research outputs are now freely available through OpenAlex, a global scholarly information infrastructure.
This initiative has enabled research outputs held in Japanese institutional repositories to be disseminated internationally through the use of metadata compliant with JPCOAR(*4) Schema Version 2.0 (*5) , developed by the Japan Consortium for Open Access Repository (JPCOAR). This integration with OpenAlex is supported by the high-quality, standardized metadata accumulated in IRDB, including research titles, authors, DOIs, full-text URLs, and institutional affiliations.
OpenAlex is designed not only for human search, but also for automated machineto-machine use by AI systems and software applications. Its API and dedicated libraries provide an “AI-ready” (*6) environment, making IRDB metadata available for AI-driven use and reuse.
【Future Outlook】
NII will continue to enhance the functionality of IRDB and improve the quality of its metadata, further promoting the dissemination of research outputs while developing IRDB into a scholarly information infrastructure that makes an even greater contribution to the advancement of research.
【Related Links】
(*1) Institutional Repositories DataBase (IRDB) is a database developed and operated by the National Institute of Informatics (NII) that collects and provides metadata from institutional repositories maintained by universities and research institutions across Japan.
(*2) OpenAlex is an open scholarly bibliographic database developed and operated by the U.S.- based non-profit organization OpenAlex. It covers scholarly publications, including research articles, as well as information on research institutions.
(*3) Basic Policy on Promoting Open Access to Publicly Funded Scholarly Publications and Scientific Data. The policy requires immediate open access to scholarly publications and the underlying research data resulting from eligible competitive research funding programs newly announced from FY2025 onward. https://www8.cao.go.jp/cstp/oa_240216.pdf
(*4) JPCOAR is established in July 2016 under an agreement between the Coordinating Committee for Japanese University Libraries and NII. This organization aims to promote open science through repositories and strengthen the community.
(*5) JPCOAR Schema Version 2.0 is the standard metadata schema for Japanese institutional repositories, developed and maintained by JPCOAR. Version 2.0 expands support for research data and digital archives, facilitating the dissemination and interoperability of scholarly information.
(*6) AI-ready is a state in which data and metadata have been structured to enhance machine readability and interoperability, with the expectation that they will be used by AI.
About the National Institute of Informatics (NII)
NII is Japan's only academic research institute dedicated to the new discipline of informatics. Its mission is to "create future value" in informatics. NII conducts both long-term basic research and practical research aimed at solving social problems in a wide range of informatics research fields, from fundamental theories to the latest topics, such as artificial intelligence, big data, the Internet of Things, and information security.
As an inter-university research institute, NII builds and operates academic information infrastructure essential for the research and educational activities of the entire academic community (including the Science Information Network) as well as developing services such as those that enable the provision of academic content and service platforms.
https://www.nii.ac.jp/en/
About the Research Organization of Information and Systems (ROIS)
ROIS is a parent organization of four national institutes (National Institute of Polar Research, National Institute of Informatics, the Institute of Statistical Mathematics and National Institute of Genetics) and the Joint Support-Center for Data Science Research. It is ROIS's mission to promote integrated, cutting-edge research that goes beyond the barriers of these institutions, in addition to facilitating their research activities, as members of inter-university research institutes.