Overview of RCOS

The NII Research Center for Open Science and Data Platform (RCOS) was established in 2017 within the National Institute of Informatics (NII) to develop and operate a research data infrastructure in response to the global momentum for open science.

In light of the digital age, it has become dramatically easier to publish and share information and engage in a wide range of collaborative activities, and there is growing momentum around the world to create a new dimension of scholarly activity (i.e., open science). One cannot help but wonder what new developments will take place in research activities when academic resources such as academic papers and research data are no longer stored on paper or other physical recording media and can be freely shared on the Internet. Or what progress will be made in addressing challenges within academia and society and in innovation when domestic and international researchers, as well as academia and society, work closely together on the Internet. In addition, the fact that research results and the record of research activities are verifiable is inherently open and is considered to underpin and accelerate scholarly activity in developing one's own discoveries on top of those of the predecessors.

Open science has been gaining momentum internationally since the joint statement of the G8 Science and Technology Ministerial Meeting in 2013. In Japan, the Cabinet Office released a report on the promotion of open science in 2015, followed by the Science Council of Japan and the Council for Science and Technology. It is clearly stated in The 5th Science and Technology Basic Plan (2016-2020) to promote open science, and it is required in The 6th Science, Technology and Innovation Basic Plan (2021-2025) to establish a new research system to promote open science and data-driven research, etc..

At RCOS, we develop and provide a research data infrastructure required by these policies to manage, discover and search academic papers and research data.