• unknown: scientific e-publishing
• unknown: STM
• unknown: academic community
• unknown: scientific e-publishing
• unknown: STM
• unknown: academic community
• unknown: scientific e-publishing
• unknown: STM
• unknown: academic community

• NIMS Digital Library PDF (0.2 MB)
  none (NIMS only)

An introduction to some initiatives by economics point of views that has been going in the field of science in Japan, that focus on e-journals from academic societies, research laboratories and government agents.
The economic model of these journal publishing are categorized in three models. Supported by
1) societies and their members (members fee),
2) institutions such as universities or research institutes (institution budge), and
3) a combination of government and institutions (institution budges and government funding).
The main return is from the institutional subscriptions. The cost performance of the system development for e-journals publishing is not yet proved. However, society members or people related to journal publishing for scientific communities are quite aware of that it is more important to have own publishing system/method (not only computer system but also a development of human resources) to allow them to control themselves rather than outsourcing whole publishing roles outside Japan. It is true that most of organization have been struggling to balance the cost, especially, the development expenses of e-journals system and the income from e-journals sales. It is still hard to battle to a myth of impact factor to authors and readers, but few of organizations have started to implement the COUNTER applicable by having a government funding support.
“The Third Science and Technology Basic Plan” by Japanese government has introduced a budget, 25 trillion yen for coming 5 years. New journals are appearing. I would like to introduce a summary of these activities and share the real problems behind those economics.