News

News Release

2026/03/19

NII RDC Launches New Features to Accelerate Immediate Open Access
Promoting Research Dissemination and Streamlining Library Support Operations

　The National Institute of Informatics (NII; Director General: Sadao Kurohashi; Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo), a division of the Research Organization of Information and Systems, has developed new features to advance the sharing and publication of research outputs in Japan. These enhancements are designed to support Immediate Open Access (OA) to scholarly articles and to facilitate the sharing of research data within universities and research institutions.
　Integrated directly into the NII Research Data Cloud (NII RDC) *1, these new features have been available to universities and research institutions nationwide starting Wednesday, March 18, 2026. With these enhancements, institutions can build a seamless workflow--from managing data during active research to registering and publishing papers and their supporting evidence data via institutional repositories.

Background

In recent years, the sharing and reusability of academic research outputs have become critical global priorities. This is reflected in international mandates such as the UNESCO Recommendation on Open Science, which strongly advocates for the promotion of Open Access.
NII RDC is a research data infrastructure developed by NII to support open science, research integrity, and data-driven research. Since its full-scale launch in 2021, it has consisted of three core platforms aligned with the research data lifecycle:

GakuNin RDM: Research data management platform.
JAIRO Cloud: Publication platform (Institutional Repository).
CiNii Research: Discovery and search platform.

In Japan, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) launched the "Open Access Acceleration Program" in FY2024*2 to support the development of systems and reforms necessary to accelerate OA. With support from this initiative, NII has developed these new features within NII RDC to provide a robust environment in which universities can efficiently achieve immediate OA.

Overview of Key Features

The new functionalities integrate GakuNin RDM and JAIRO Cloud to provide four primary capabilities:

Support for Immediate OA to Papers and Supporting Data for Researchers
This feature enables seamless transfer between GakuNin RDM and JAIRO Cloud. Researchers can transfer and publish supporting data--which validate the conclusions of their papers--from their private workspace in GakuNin RDM to their space in the institutional repository on JAIRO Cloud. In addition, the system provides automated workflows aligned with each institution's approval processes to comprehensively support immediate OA.
Limited Sharing of Research Outputs for Researchers
Some papers or datasets may need to be shared with specific colleagues or reviewers before public release. The "Secret URL" feature enables researchers to grant access only to authorized individuals--such as peer reviewers--supporting secure collaboration during the review process.
OA Assist for Librarians
OA Assist*3 is a system designed to help librarians publish articles and supporting evidence data in institutional repositories on JAIRO Cloud. The system harvests and provides a list of publications that have not yet been made public in the institutional repository and notifies librarians. Librarians can then request that researchers publish the content, increasing the institution's overall OA rate, which can be monitored using OA Assist's OA dashboard function.
Updated OA Dashboard as a CiNii Research Institutional Dashboard Trial for Research Administrators and Librarians
Utilizing data from CiNii Research, this dashboard aggregates and visualizes the OA status of individual institutions. Research administrators can monitor and assess their institution's progress based on objective, data-driven indicators.

　
　 These features are integrated into GakuNin RDM and JAIRO Cloud--core components of NII RDC--and became available to universities and research institutions nationwide starting March 18, coinciding with version updates to both platforms. In addition, a trial version of the Japan Open Science Monitor, designed to track nationwide open access trends, has already been released*4.

Social Impact and Expected Effects

Under current government policy, research funded by competitive grants from FY2025 onward must, in principle, be made publicly available immediately upon acceptance of the paper.*5

Low-Cost Implementation: Because these features are part of the existing NII RDC service, universities can respond quickly to immediate OA requirements at low cost, without significant new infrastructure investment.
Enhanced Visibility: Promoting OA increases the visibility and reusability of research outputs, accelerating research activities in Japan and internationally.
Societal Benefit: Making publicly funded research freely accessible supports the creation of new knowledge and improves R&D efficiency across society.

Future Outlook

While Japan's transition to immediate OA has begun, challenges remain regarding the scope of data disclosure, administrative burdens at universities and research institutions, and rights management.
Under the principles of collaborative thinking and co-creation, NII will collect feedback from relevant institutions through the operation of this infrastructure and continue to drive ongoing improvements to features and services.
Going forward, to advance Japan's academic information infrastructure, NII will work in collaboration with domain experts, developers, and the academic community to examine data formats, scale, network environments, and security frameworks, with the goal of building a robust and sustainable environment.