CiNii (/ˈsaɪniː/)[1] is abibliographic database service for material in Japanese academic libraries, especially focusing onJapanese works and English works published inJapan. An early trial version of the database was a component of its predecessor called GeNii,[2] available online at least since June 2002.[3] A complete version of CiNii has been available since April 2005.[4] The service searches from within the databases maintained by the NII itself (Citation Database for Japanese Publications, CJP), as well as the databases provided by the Japan Science and Technology Agency (J-STAGE), theNational Diet Library of Japan,institutional repositories, and other organizations.[5]
As of March 2020, the database contains more than 22 million articles from more than 3,600 publications.[5] A typical month (in 2012) saw more than 30 million accesses from 2.2 million unique visitors,[6] and is the largest and most comprehensive database of its kind in Japan. Although the database is multidisciplinary, the largest portion of the queries it receives is in the humanities and social sciences field, perhaps because CiNii is the only database that covers Japanese scholarly works in this field (as opposed to the natural, formal, and medical sciences which benefit from other databases).[7]
The database assigns a unique identifier,NII Article ID (NAID), to each of its journal article entries.[6] A different identifier,NII Citation ID (NCID or 書誌ID) akaNACSIS-CAT Record ID, is used for books.
NCIDBB17611495 for the 2010 Penguin edition ofThe Catcher in the Rye
NCIDBA36680090 for a 1952 edition ofKiken na nenrei (危険な年齢),NCIDBN01880084 for a 1964 edition ofRai-mugi batake de tsukamaete (ライ麦畑でつかまえて), andNCIDBA61718322 for a 2003 edition ofKyatchā in za rai (キャッチャー・イン・ザ・ライ), all three being Japanese translations ofThe Catcher in the Rye
NCIDBB13715590 for a 1997 edition ofMai tian li de shou wang zhe (麦田里的守望者), a Chinese translation ofThe Catcher in the Rye.
Identifiers are also assigned to authors of books, and of journal articles, in two separate series (so an author may have a different identifier value in each). For example, Shinsaku Kimoto isDA00432173 for books and9000002393144 for journal articles.