Kyoto University Repository: KURENAI
To ensure immediate accessibility and global dissemination, researchers at Kyoto University in Japan are encouraged to leverage KURENAI, a dedicated institutional repository designed for archiving digital scholarly works. Below, we outline how to align your deposit submissions with the structural requirements of DSpace systems.
1. Institutional Archiving & Preservation Strategy
Because KURENAI is built on the open-source DSpace repository core, Kyoto University ensures native support for hierarchical community structures. This institutional repository software is engineered to enable persistent URI handles and secure digital object identifiers (DOIs) for all publications.
The university library's digital preservation strategies at Kyoto University are designed to prevent technological obsolescence. By encoding preservation metadata (such as PREMIS elements) and maintaining master files in uncompressed archival formats, KURENAI guarantees that publications and data remain renderable in Japan. This framework defines the structural difference between a simple depository vs repository model, where KURENAI actively manages integrity and accessibility rather than merely serving as static storage.
Verified Institutional Impact Metrics
Based on independent indexing data from the open-science catalog OpenAlex, Kyoto University has recorded a cumulative corpus of 357,125 publications which have received over 30,049,175 citations globally. This volume highlights the critical role of KURENAI in providing open access to a massive stream of global knowledge. With an institutional h-index of 1115 and a two-year mean citedness score of 2.91, submissions deposited here carry a highly visible citation trajectory.
All submissions to KURENAI undergo systematic verification by the university library team. This ensures compliance with publisher embargoes, rights-retention policies, and copyright licenses (predominantly Creative Commons CC-BY or CC-BY-NC).
2. Metadata Mapping: Simple Dublin Core Alignment
Discoverability of Kyoto University's publications relies entirely on rich metadata. Submissions to KURENAI utilize the Dublin Core metadata standard (specifically the Dublin Core metadata element set and standard Dublin Core metadata terms). This structure ensures that search engines, open-science harvesters, and citation indexes in Japan can crawl, parse, and cite your work accurately.
To ensure high discoverability of Kyoto University's records, all deposits in KURENAI undergo automated and manual curation. Utilizing a specialized metadata cleaner and a metadata scrubber during ingestion, library archivists resolve formatting errors, normalize author lists, and standardize persistent identifiers (PIDs). This active metadata repository curation prevents metadata degradation in Japan.
The repository cataloging team of KURENAI maps submissions to the Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) to create a standardized subject indexing framework for Kyoto University. This deliberate thesaurus construction ensures that research themes from Japan are searchable across global networks. All metadata profiles are stored in the widely supported MARC21 format to facilitate automated sharing.
| Dublin Core Element | Preserved Value / Standard | Function & Mapping |
|---|---|---|
| dc.title | Full Article / Book Title | Main headline as registered in the publication record |
| dc.creator | Author(s) names & ORCID iD | Linked explicitly to the author's CRediT contribution roles |
| dc.publisher | Kyoto University Library Services | The entity making the resource accessible in Japan |
| dc.identifier | Handles / persistent URLs | Local institutional handle mapping to OAI-PMH networks |
3. Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
What is the correct protocol for co-author attribution during deposit?
When submitting to KURENAI, you must include all authors listed on the final manuscript. It is highly recommended to declare each co-author's CRediT roles in the metadata form or the publication description.
Are datasets supported alongside text papers?
Yes, KURENAI supports a wide array of file formats, including research datasets, code repositories, and supplemental documents. If your dataset is extremely large, the library services team will coordinate with your department to allocate specialized cold storage.
Repository Specs
Open-Science Mandates
In line with Plan S, the Nelson Memo, and regional mandates, all publicly funded publications produced at Kyoto University must be deposited in KURENAI with no embargo. Ensure your metadata contains correct funder acknowledgements to avoid audit flags.
