New J-STAGE system accelerates digitization and distribution of academic journals from Japan

13 years have passed since J-STAGE was launched. At present no one could deny that its user interface and functions were already out of date comparing to foreign established e-journals. So JST has developed a new system called “J-STAGE3” in order to offer better usability and give powerful dissemination of academic papers from Japan. As the result of it, they will be able to enjoy the following things: 1) integration of two databases, Journal@rchive and J-STAGE, 2) new design/interface, 3) introduction of international standard XML format, 4) advanced subscription management, 5) saving cost of publishers, and 6) improving J-STAGE online submission and review system. At the end of March 2011, we conducted a market research on current status of digitization on Japanese society journals. The report told us that digitization ratio of those was 62% in total but it was 34% in humanities/social sciences. Or it was 92% in English journals and 55% in Japanese ones. It means that we need further promotion of digitization. In this paper, we discuss functions and direction of J-STAGE3 as well as our role in promotion of digitization of Japanese society journals.