Japan has become the latest country to open a database of pre-print online, in an effort to improve exposure to international research. But so far, researchers have not rushed to send to Jxiv – less than 40 papers loaded since its launch in March – and some researchers say the forum is unnecessary.Proponents of her case have been working to make the actual transcript of this statement available online. “If the government has this, it will remain secure,” said Guojun Sheng, a plumbing expert at Kumamoto University in Japan.
Japan’s production of published research papers is among the highest in the world. But Japanese researchers rarely share the original versions of their manuscripts with pre-printed servers, says Soichi Kubota, who works in the state-of-the-art information technology department at the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST
) in Tokyo.Kubota says the JST wants to change that. It has established Jxiv to close the gap in existing forums, which do not cover all aspects of research – including the most popular ones in Japan, such as history, business and administration, languages ​​and science in various fields. Lots of Japanese printed papers in those fields. Researchers can send manuscripts to Jxiv in English and Japanese.
India, Russia, China, Indonesia and Africa have their own dedicated destinations. Similar services handling research conducted in France and the Arab world have been discontinued in 2020. Some of the most popular archives rely on a specific theme, such as the original print server, arXiv, natural science manus and mathematical manuscripts.
Continuous benefits
The long-standing criticism of previously printed servers is that, because the papers are sent without regular editing or peer review, there is no process to remove low-quality research.Kubota acknowledges that some low-quality preprints are shipped to pre-printed servers, but argues that the benefits of a Japanese printing server far outweigh any reductions. The forum can help spread Japanese science to a wider audience because manuscripts are free to read. He also hopes Jxiv will improve cooperation between Japanese scientists and international peers.
Kubota notes that researchers often send pre-printed manuscripts to print servers in advance to receive peer-reviewed comments, which serve as informal peer reviews, before sending text to journal. The process could also reduce the workload of peer reviewers, he says.
But Thomas Russell, a jointly elected polymer scientist at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and Tohoku University in Sendai, is concerned that encouraging Japanese researchers to use print servers in advance will mean that their manuscripts will not attract enough online processing. “I think the Japanese are less conservative than in Western culture,” he said.Russell thinks print servers are not necessary to distribute research immediately. “If it is a good science, it will go through a review process and come out quickly,” he said.But Sheng thinks Jxiv will continue, especially if funding agencies start looking for sponsors for their work to use in the future.
Source Journal Reference: Dalmeet Singh Chawla, Japan launches preprint server — but will scientists use it?, Nature News (2022), doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-01359-x
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