Home > Help > Legal Deposit, Donation, Collections > Deposits of online publications
Help : Deposits of online publications
Frequently asked questions
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- Why does the Library collect online publications?
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- The availability via Internet of materials traditionally issued as publications or that would conventionally have been issued as print editions has been increasing. The Library has been acquiring and conserving printed publications via the legal deposit system, but information provided over the Internet can easily be dissipated and lost.
Given the circumstances described above, in order to achieve the goals of the legal deposit system in "contributing to the use and accumulation of cultural assets," the Library acquires, conserves, and provides online publications (private sector e-books and e-periodicals provided over the Internet etc.).
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- With e-legal deposit of online publications, will there be there any changes to public institutions' collection of Internet resources?
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- Public institutions such as national universities will not incur any new legal deposit requirements.
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- Are there penalties involved in the e-legal deposit of online publications?
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- There are no penalties in the system at the moment.
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- What sorts of things are online publications?
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- The term "online publications" refers to books and serial periodicals published (made available) as electronic information via the Internet: specifically, e-books and e-periodicals. Of those e-books and electronic magazines that are published (made available) on the Internet privately (which excludes public institutions), the following are subject to the legal deposit system:
- (1)Those granted specific codes (ISBN, ISSN, DOI)
- (2)Those created in specific formats (PDF, EPUB, DAISY)
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- What are DRM-free publications like?
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- With regard to online publications, being free of DRM means that no encryption has been implemented, such that reading or recording of the electronic information is not restricted. Since Footprint etc. can be read or recorded without restrictions, it is treated being free of DRM.
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- What sorts of online publications are exempt from legal deposit requirements?
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- The following online publications are exempt from legal deposit requirements:
1) Simple publications; 2) publications with no increase or decrease or change in content; 3) publications intended to administer applications or approvals for e-commerce transactions, etc.; 4) publications that are reported as identical printed pages of paper books or periodicals; and 5) publications intended for long-term use which will not be deleted.
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- What are the criteria for "identical" in the phrase "identical printed page"?
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- The term "identical printed page" means not only simply that the contents are the same, but that even the layout is the same. Accordingly, reflow-type documentation would not be considered an "identical printed page."
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- What are "simple" publications?
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- Various informational materials, blog or Twitter posts, product catalogs, school class communications, diaries, etc. are assumed to be "simple publications."
Lecture materials and conference materials are also essentially treated as "simple publications." However, reports from academic associations are subject to legal deposit requirements.
Please contact the Library if you encounter any specific problems of judgment.
- Contact Information
Digital Library Division, Kansai-kan of the National Diet Library
8-1-3 Seikadai. Seika-cho. Soraku-gun. Kyoto 619-0287 JAPAN
E-mail: online
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- If both an electronic and a paper version exist, can I deposit only one or the other?
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- Because electronic materials and paper media versions are treated as separate documents, the Library requires the deposit of both versions.
However, if it is confirmed by request of the publisher that the e-materials version and the paper version are "identical printed pages," the paper version must still be deposited in accordance with the legal deposit system but deposit of the e-materials version is not required.
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- Does the Library accept e-books or e-periodicals that do not fall under a specific format or a specific code?
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- E-books or e-periodicals that do not fall under a specific format or a specific code are exempt from acquisition.
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- Are materials made publically available via J-STAGE, etc. subject to legal deposit requirements?
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- Even privately published materials, if published on J-STAGE, are made available to the public via the services of public institutions such as JST; thus, based on Section 3, Article 25 of the National Diet Library Law, these materials are subject to Internet resource collection of public institutions, such that private individuals are not subject to legal deposit requirements.
Moreover, materials published on J-STAGE are not collected, as they fall under "Publications recognized as intended for long-term use made continuously available to the public which will not be deleted except in special circumstances" in Section 2, Article 1 of the "Regulations for recording Internet resources under the National Diet Library Law" (National Diet Library Regulations No. 5, 2009).
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- Are materials made publically available in institutional repositories subject to legal deposit requirements?
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- Since materials made available to the public in institutional repositories are "Publications recognized as intended for long-term use made continuously available to the public which will not be deleted except in special circumstances," these are not subject to legal deposit requirements.
Please note that in accordance with the "Notice regarding implementation of the Ministerial order to partially amend degree regulations" (Ministry of Education Directive No. 937 dated March 11, 2013) with which the Ministry of Education notified each university, doctoral dissertations made publically available in institutional repositories are subject to acquisition.
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- Are paper media versions of digitized materials subject to legal deposit requirements?
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- Materials granted a specific code or recorded in a specific format are subject to deposit requirements.
However, when the Library recognizes at the request of the publisher that the materials constitute an "identical printed page" of books or serial periodicals previously deposited, legal deposit is not required.
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- When overseas publishers publish Japanese academic journals, are these subject to legal deposit requirements?
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- The distinction of whether deposit is required depends upon the location of the publisher—not the location of the server.
Even if a Japanese publisher operates its distribution using local subsidiaries overseas, if the publications are mainly for Japan then those materials are subject to legal deposit requirements. On the other hand, if the publisher is principally a foreign corporation, it is exempt from deposit requirements.
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- Are company-internal bulletins and member-only materials subject to legal deposit requirements?
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- If available to be read on the Internet etc., then even company-internal bulletins and employee-only materials are subject to legal deposit requirements. However, this does not apply to publications deemed to be "simple."
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- I have submitted a securities report to the Financial Services Agency. Am I required to deposit the same document with the National Diet Library?
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- Since securities reports are required to be submitted to the Financial Services Agency, and in some cases are also housed in EDINET, they are exempt from legal deposit requirements for the time being.
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- Who is obliged to perform the legal deposit?
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- The entity obliged to make the legal deposit is the entity who has transmitted or otherwise made an online publication widely available to the public via the Internet. If the publisher (publishing company) and distributors (electronic bookstores etc.) are different entities, in principle, the publisher (publishing company) is responsible for this.
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- How should I deposit online publications?
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- Online publications may be deposited by 1) Automatic acquisition; 2) Electronic transmission; and 3) Sending by mail.
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- What should I give for metadata?
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- The following fields are required: title, author, publisher, date of publication, and URL. If there is version information or code information, this is also required.
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- What sort of expenses are covered?
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- The Library will issue an amount equivalent to the costs of media and normal expenses incurred by the publisher in sending the online publication to the Library.
In concrete terms, this is the cost of media plus cost of mailing.
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- Could the deposit application process be simplified?
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- If you nominate regular acquisitions during your application for automatic acquisition, the Library will conduct automatic acquisitions at regular intervals for periodically published content pages of online publications, so there is no need to contact the Library about the relevant pages for each new issue of a periodical. Please contact us at any time about online publications published with new pages of content.
For periodicals published regularly (quarterly, half yearly, etc.), applications for legal deposit may be conducted in a collective lot rather than at time of publication.
Please note that the Library collects and preserves private-sector websites based on permission to do so via the Website Archive (WARP). Further deposit of online materials contained on those websites acquired by the Library through this service are not required. If companies, private universities, academic associations, or public corporations, etc. would like to give permission for acquisition of a website, they should contact the Library.
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- Once acquired, how are online publications provided?
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- The Library offers a reading service for acquired online publications. Please use the NDL Digital Collections for reading these. On-site copying services and remote copying services started on January 18, 2023.
As a general rule, the Library does not transmit these materials to other libraries.
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