Tokai National Higher Education and Research System
Open Access Acceleration Project

Tokai National Higher Education and Research System has the Digital University Initiative (*1) as a way to expand university functions and provide a place for digital social co-creation in the digital space. The Open Access Policy established by Gifu University and Nagoya University is the cornerstone of this concept, and based on this policy, both universities have promoted open access of their educational and research achievements.

Tokai National Higher Education and Research System has been selected by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology for the "Open Access Acceleration Project" [JP]. This project aims to enhance and strengthen the system for the management and publication of research results by universities, etc., and to guarantee access to knowledge that is open to industry, etc., thereby strengthening the ability to disseminate research results and enhancing Japan's competitiveness.

In Open Access Acceleration Project based on the "Basic Policy for the Realization of Immediate Open Access to Journal Articles (decided by the Cabinet Office Integrated Innovation Strategy Promotion Council on February 16, 2024) (*2)", we will upgrade systems for managing and utilizing research results and develop environmental infrastructure such as storage for research data management and publication. And future revisions of the open access policies of both universities will also be discussed. In addition, the project includes covering Article Processing Charge (APC) and other open access costs, holding Faculty Development (FD) to encourage researchers to make their research results publicly available toward immediate open access, various publicity and awareness activities, and developing operational infrastructures to improve work efficiency to secure human resources.

Through these developments, we will establish a system that can respond to the policy of immediate open access and actively promote open science.

(※1）Digital University Initiative at Tokai National Higher Education and Research System
https://www.du.thers.ac.jp/ (in Japanese)

(※2）Basic Policy for the Realization of Immediate Open Access to Journal Articles（July 30, 2024 confirmed）
https://www8.cao.go.jp/cstp/tougosenryaku/18kai/18kai.html (in Japanese)

Grant Information

• Title：Grant for the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology's (MEXT) "Open Access Acceleration project
  (Subsidy for Artificial Intelligence and Other Social Implementation Research Center project)"
• Date of grant decision: July 26, 2024
• Grantee: Tokai National Higher Education and Research System
• Period: Fiscal year 2024 (from July 26, 2024 to March 31, 2025)

Support for registering in an institutional repository

As a measure to promote Green Open Access, we will develop a one-stop support system for registering research results in an institutional repository. We will link the researcher information database (Gifu University: researchmap, Nagoya University: Nagoya University Faculty Database) to the research data storage system and the institutional repository and develop a new "Research Results Management System" and "Research Results Registration Form".

In addition, the storage and network environment will be enhanced in order to safely and smoothly handle the increasing volume of articles and research data.

We will continue to improve each system developed and enhanced under this project through feedback and evaluation from faculty members even after the project period ends.

APC Support

In addition to journal transformative agreements, we will plan and provide strategic APC support measures such as APC support for high-impact journals.

Promotion

In order to encourage researchers to make their research results publicly available toward immediate open access, we will hold FDs for our constituents and renew and expand our website to provide information on APC support, research data management support, etc.

Others

In order to build a system that can respond to the immediate open access, the library will renovate equipment and facilities related to library operations, as well as improve work efficiency through organizational restructuring and digital transformation (DX) of operations.