Japan launches preprint server — but will scientists use it?

"Japan has become the latest country to open an online preprint repository, in a bid to boost international exposure to the country’s research. But so far, researchers haven’t rushed to post on Jxiv — fewer than 40 papers have been uploaded since it launched in March — and some researchers say the platform isn't necessary.

Jxiv’s supporters, however, think the platform will increase in popularity, with some suggesting researchers will warm to it because its backed by the government. “If the government is hosting this, then it’s going to stay for sure,” says Guojun Sheng, an embryologist at Kumamoto University in Japan.

Japan’s output of published research papers is among the highest in the world. But researchers in Japan don’t often share early versions of their manuscripts on preprint servers, says Soichi Kubota, who works at the department of information infrastructure at the government-run Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) in Tokyo.

Kubota says the JST wants to change that. It set up Jxiv to fill a gap in existing platforms, which don’t accommodate all research fields — including popular ones in Japan, such as history, business and management, linguistics and interdisciplinary sciences. Vast numbers of papers that are published in Japanese are in those fields. Researchers can post manuscripts on Jxiv in English and Japanese.

India, Russia, China, Indonesia and Africa have their own dedicated repositories. Similar services that host research conducted in France and the Arab world were discontinued in 2020. Some of the most popular repositories are subject-specific, such as the original preprint server, arXiv, for physical-science and mathematics manuscripts...."