Research projects

1 Use and recognition for electronic journals and other electronic resources by Japanese researchers in STM. We sent a questionnaire to selected Japanese researchers which consisted of 1427 physicists, 1026 chemists and 1276 pathologists(response rates are respectively 54.3%, 48.1% and 42.4%) The main results are follows : (1)About 55-65% of respondents have used electronic journals everyday or weekly. (2)More than 90% of them have also used print journals. (3)They have seldom used other electronic resources except the use of arXiv by physicists(about 30% of researchers have used). (4)About 40% of them recognized the present situation of scholarly communication would not be significantly changed after five years. However, more than half believed predominance of electronic resources in some form or other. 2 Placing the e-print archive in scholarly communication We have explored the place of e-print archive in scholarly communication through the use and view by Japanese physicists. In comparison with the use of electronic journals, the ratio of use for e-print archive(arXiv) was not changed from 1999 to 2003. We concluded that the e-print archive works as resource in informal communication rather than substitute for the traditional scholarly journal. 3 The shift from print to electronic version of traditional scholarly journals In 2002, 60-80% of main traditional journals in physics, psychology, general (selected from 151 journal lists) provide electronic version of full articles. In comparison with 1997 and 1998 studies, the shift from print to electronic of them may have almost completed. 4 Trends towards "Open Access" of scientific information In around 2003. "Open Access" movements came to interest many researchers, librarians, and so on. We recognize Open access movements as focus points for transformation of scholarly communication. Then we started the Web site "Open Access Japan" with the aim to sure information on open access.

Currently, the research process has become digitalized, and there is not only an open access movement to make research results open, but also an open science movement that aims to share research data. Based on this background, this study took the following three approaches: (1) analysis of policies related to open science, (2) understanding of macro trends related to open access to articles and research data, and (3) micro analysis of the role and position of research data in individual research projects. We focused particularly on understanding macro trends and conducted a number of surveys. As a representative result, we characterized the open access situation in 2015 and 2020 from the viewpoint of OA implementation. We also analyzed three types of data sharing in journal articles from the perspective of reuse and dataset release.

The aim of this research is to clarify the characteristics of e-research, and the current status of digitization and openness of scholarly communication. Methods differ by the research plan: interview; questionnaire survey; information search and data acquisition through websites. Main results are following: the development of model about researchers practices and awareness for data; situation on digitization of academic journals; status of open access in biomedical fields; general public information needs and information-seeking behavior on health information and/or specific information.

An online questionnaire survey was conducted from November to December 2014, in cooperation with 45 institutions in Japan. As a result, 3,933 valid responses from researchers (faculty and doctoral students) across various fields were collected. Through the analyses from the multiple viewpoints, the survey results showed significant progress in researchers’ use of online resources and obvious changes in their reading-behavior, such as rapid increase in the percentage of reading articles online via PC or mobile devices.

Recently academic research has been based on digital environments. This research project was designed to find out how the “openness” and “sharing” in academic research have progressed. The ratio of open access of research articles in the entire fields has reached more half. The new style of articles in electronic journals which are feasible for digital reading gradually became popular. Although in the advanced initiative case the research data sharing have improved, researchers in many fields have complex feeling or attitude for data sharing. Because researchers cannot separate data sharing from research practices, it make more difficult to achieve data sharing widely. The issues or problem of data sharing should be examined from all angles.

This study assesses attitudes towards electronic media and examines the current level of use of these media by academic researchers and scholars in Japan, using the interview and the mail survey. The survey contained questions assessing demographic characteristics, usage of computers in research process, usage of electronic mail, mailing list, electronic journal, and WWW. A questionnaire was distributed to faculty members in departments of medicine, psychology, physics, history and economics. The results suggest that E-mail is the most popular electronic medium, and research fields varies usage of mailing lists and WWW. Although the actual number of academics using electronic journals at present may be low, academics expect to this new medium. But a large majority of researchers surveyed relied greatly on the refereed journal to publish their research results.

This LIPER3 project over five years after the past two phases of LIPER research project has been carried out as the following three types of research, in order to give a change to the structural condition of Japanese library and information science(LIS) education system. First, in order to review and share the educational content of LIS, we wrote the new LIS standard textbook series and published them by an academic press. Second, the LIS examination has been carried out once a year, in order that each educational institution can evaluate its own educational content and educational outcomes through the self-evaluation process. Third, in order to grasp the situation of foreign LIS education and to exchange them each other we published a translation of the American LIS standard textbook, made the research communication at international conferences, and visited and carried out interviews at the educational institutions in Europe and the United States.

An online questionnaire survey was conducted from October to December 2011, in cooperation with 45 institutions in Japan. As a result, 3,922 valid responses from researchers (faculty and doctoral students) across various fields were collected. Through the analyses from the multiple viewpoints, the survey results showed significant progress in researchers’ use of online resources and obvious changes in their attitude (preference) and reading-behavior.

1 Objectives ; The objectives of this research are to reexamine the Evidence-Based Library and Information Practice (EBLIP) and to clarify "Evidence" concepts in the library and information research. In the library and information science, there is the problem of the evidence for the research method as well as other research fields. it is a problem of the evidence in the research method as well as other fields. There are some unique methodology in the library and information science ; user study, bibliographic control, bibliometrics, and information retrieval. It is usual that any research field takes various methodology from some related research area. In the library and information science, the methodology has been introduced from social sciences, humanities, natural sciences and so, common understanding of "evidence" in the research has not established. 2 Research Results; To review the research method in the library and information science from the viewpoint of the evidence, the following research projects were done; (1) reexamination of the Evidence Based Librarianship (EBL) concept based on the content analysis of the research articles of EBL or EBLIP, (2) workshops that discuss the evidence obtained from research methods used by the library and information science, (3) investigation the research evidences obtained from the experiments on "information seeking behavior" using eye camera, (4) design the bibliographic database for the literature search in the EBLIP or EBL.

Main results of this research project are following ; 1)The percentage of OA articles increased from 37% in 2007 to 50% in 2009. 2) As results of content analysis of interview data for 26 Japanese researchers, the recognition for sharing research data differ by research approach. 3) As results of questionnaire to 1,200 individuals in Japan in a randomized, population-based, door-to-door survey, 52% of the participants had experience seeking health information. Their main information sources are "doctors" and "Internet". 49% of the participants responded that they were willing to read clinical articles when they are written in Japanese.

1. Current state of electronic journal publishing and researchers' use (1) Trends in electronic journals from the late 1990s and early 2000s was identified through investigating how existing print journals shift to Web. (2) As a result of survey on Japanese researchers in the fields of Science, Technology and Medicine, dramatic increase of electronic journal use were found. Many of them, however, preferred to downloading and printing PDF files which did not been considered the use by the reflection of the new characteristics of electronic journals. 2. Trend in Open Access movements (1) Information of current status of Open Access movements has been made available on website, Open Access Japan. (2) As result that current state of Open access in Biomedical fields were investigated, 26% of target articles published at 2005 were able to be accessed as OA. We continue to analyze these results in detail. (3) Surveys on Institutional Repository or Open Access Journals were conducted. 3. Change of researchers' information behavior and their attitudes for Open Access movements A investigation on access and use of journal articles of Japanese researchers in Medical fields were conducted. More than 70% of the format of articles read recently was electronic article. They preferred to PubMed from general search engine such as Google to obtain the article read recently. This result is different with that of investigations in another countries such as United States or United Kingdom.