CiNii
The primary discovery platform for Japanese-language scholarship and research data.
OVERVIEW
What is CiNii?
CiNii (Citation Information by NII) is the academic information service operated by Japan's National Institute of Informatics, providing access to research articles, books, dissertations, and research data primarily produced in Japan. The CiNii Research platform unifies content from KAKEN, IRDB, JaLC, and other Japanese scholarly sources, with both Japanese- and English-language interfaces. Most of its records are freely accessible to the public, with additional features available to institutional users. CiNii is the primary discovery tool for Japanese-language scholarly content and a staple of Japanese academic libraries.
KEY FEATURES
What CiNii does well
Japanese Scholarship
Primary discovery platform for Japanese-language research papers and books.
Free Public Access
Most records freely accessible with no institutional login required.
NII Operated
Run by Japan's National Institute of Informatics for trusted Japanese sources.
Integrated Data Sources
Combines KAKEN, IRDB, JaLC, and other Japanese scholarly databases.
Journals, Books, Theses
Comprehensive coverage of Japanese articles, books, dissertations, and projects.
Bilingual Interface
Switch between Japanese and English UIs for international collaboration.
Subjects Covered
Media included
Document and content types you can find in CiNii.
- Journal articles
- Books / book chapters
- Theses & dissertations
- Datasets
TOP TOOL COMPARISONS
CiNii Alternatives
| Tool | Coverage | Subjects Covered | Open Access / Pricing | Citation Features | One-line Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CiNii | 180,000,000 | Multidisciplinary | Yes · Freemium | Cited references where available | The primary discovery platform for Japanese-language scholarship and research data. |
 Google Scholar | 389,000,000 | Multidisciplinary | Yes · Free | Cited by counts, h-index, i10-index, related articles | Fastest free starting point for any topic. Great for discovery, weak for systematic literature searches. |
 Scopus | 102,600,000 | Multidisciplinary | No · Paid | Citation tracking, h-index, CiteScore, cited reference search | Gold-standard subscription database for citation analysis and research evaluation across all sciences. |
 Web of Science | 240,000,000 | Multidisciplinary | No · Paid | Citation index, Journal Impact Factor, cited reference search | Best for systematic reviews and bibliometric research with deep historical citation coverage back to 1900. |
 Semantic Scholar | 200,000,000 | Multidisciplinary | Yes · Free | Influential citations, citation graph, TLDR context | Free AI-powered discovery tool. Excellent for finding influential papers and TLDR summaries. |
 OpenAlex | 250,000,000 | Multidisciplinary | Yes · Free | Citation network with full API access | The open alternative to Scopus and Web of Science. Free, comprehensive, and great for analytics. |
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