The New Era of Academic Research Opened by Immediate Open Access

The principles, requirements, and practices of open access

Abstract

From the fiscal year 2025 onward, the publication of research results funded by public funds will be man-dated to be immediately open access (OA). Open access, a form of open science (OS), aims to widely dis-seminate research findings and promote their utilization. OA is not solely about free access; it also requires the assignment of a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) to ensure permanent access and the application of a Creative Commons (CC) license to clarify copyright handling. To achieve immediate OA, embargo peri-ods must not be imposed. Posting research papers in institutional repositories also fulfills OA requirements, provided that they are searchable through the Repository Data Cloud (RDC) maintained by the National Institute of Informatics.
Moving forward, authors and academic organizations must establish clear policies regarding DOI assign-ment and CC licensing. Furthermore, an appropriate infrastructure must be developed to facilitate immedi-ate OA, including system design, technical support, and enhanced opportunities for researchers to discuss and understand the necessity of OA. Given this context, this study introduces a research case that examines the scientific validity of the widely held belief that Japan has one of the highest literacy rates in the world, which can be used as an example in OA and OS workshops. Additionally, video materials and educational case studies will be proposed for use in both OA-related training and graduate education programs.