The Roles of Open Access Repositories
Institutional repositories were created as a platform for the self-archiving of journal articles and have also grown as a publication tool for online bulletins and as an institutional publication medium for doctoral dissertations. As open science expands and the academic information environment is improved for the management and utilisation of research data, institutional repositories are expected to play even more important new roles.
Open access repositories, including institutional repositories, are a core concept of integrated solutions for the dissemination of information by academic and research institutions. Its network will support academic activities, including educational and social contribution, and should at the same time serve as a driving force to enhance Japan’s presence in the rapidly developing global repository network.
――――――Mission Statement of the Japan Consortium for Open Access Repository (JPCOAR)(2022 – 2026)
To achieve the above vision, JPCOAR collaborate with the Council for Promotion of Cooperation between University Libraries and the National Institute of Informatics (NII), which was established based on an agreement between the Japanese Coordinating Committee for University Libraries and the NII, and carry out our activities in accordance with the following statement.
[Mission Statement of the Japan Consortium for Open Access Repository (JPCOAR)]
JPCOAR is an organisation that promotes “the establishment of a repository-based knowledge dissemination system” (Article 2 of the Constitution) with the mission of making education, research, and other academic outcomes open by promoting open access. It has been working based on a medium-term strategy with a planning period of three years.
In the five-year period from 2022 to 2026, it will decide on strategies for its activities based on the results of the three-year period: with the following three priority activities, it will support member institutions in enriching their contents, developing and operating systems, and promoting open access and open science in Japan through the collaboration of various member institutions.
Priority Activities (2022-2026)
1. Strengthening the sharing of information and know-how among member institutions and developing the human resource
JPCOAR will create opportunities for each member institution so that each of them can exchange detailed information according to their individual characteristics and circumstances, train their staff members what is necessary for their work, and develop their human resources. In addition, it will promote the collection and sharing of information on advanced open science initiatives (including overseas examples and those of related communities and member institutions), so that each member institution can apply and utilise such information. It will also activate the community through collaboration and cooperation with related organisations in Japan and abroad.
2. Diversifying and utilising the contents published by member institutions
JPCOAR will share know-how on collection, management and preservation of various contents including academic papers and research data held by member institutions’ repositories, both as a whole and by category. In addition, it will promote the dissemination and utilisation of academic outcomes of member institutions by standardising metadata including various identifiers, complying with the FAIR Principles, and promoting distribution, thereby creating an ecosystem that will lead to new outcomes.
3. Promoting the maintenance and development of the repository system
JPCOAR will jointly operate JAIRO Cloud with the National Institute of Informatics (hereinafter the NII), together with member institutions as proactive operators. In addition, it will promote collaboration and cooperation with the NII so that the member institutions’ institutional repositories can smoothly link with the NII Research Data Cloud and will also collect the voices of member institutions to make recommendations.
Reference
・JPCOAR Prospectus(April 11, 2016 / Preparatory Committee for Establishing the New Institutional Repository Consortium (tentative))
・JPCOAR Open Access Repository Strategy from Fiscal 2019 to 2021
・Mission Statement of the Japan Consortium for Open Access Repository (JPCOAR)(2022 – 2026)PR Resources