CiNii
Scholarly and Academic Information Navigator, Citation Information by NII (National Institute of Informatics, Japan)
CiNii () is a bibliographic database service for material in Japanese academic libraries, especially focusing on Japanese works and English works published in Japan. An early trial version of the database was a component of its predecessor called GeNii, available online at least since June 2002.
A complete version of CiNii has been available since April 2005. 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), the National Diet Library of Japan, institutional repositories, and other organizations.
As of March 2020, the database contains more than 22 million articles from more than 3,600 publications. A typical month (in 2012) saw more than 30 million accesses from 2.2 million unique visitors, 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).
Database identifiers
The database assigns a unique identifier, NII Article ID (NAID), to each of its journal article entries. A different identifier, NII Citation ID (NCID or 書誌ID) aka NACSIS-CAT Record ID, is used for books.
NCID examples
NCID BA04004867 for the 1951 Little, Brown edition and of The Catcher in the Rye
NCID BB17611495 for the 2010 Penguin edition of The Catcher in the Rye
NCID BA36680090 for a 1952 edition of Kiken na nenrei (危険な年齢), NCID BN01880084 for a 1964 edition of Rai-mugi batake de tsukamaete (ライ麦畑でつかまえて), and NCID BA61718322 for a 2003 edition of Kyatchā in za rai (キャッチャー・イン・ザ・ライ), all three being Japanese translations of The Catcher in the Rye
NCID BB13715590 for a 1997 edition of Mai tian li de shou wang zhe (麦田里的守望者), a Chinese translation of The Catcher in the Rye.
“CiNii” enters the record as scholarly and Academic Information Navigator, Citation Information by NII (National Institute of Informatics, Japan). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what CiNii, Scholarly and Academic can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“CiNii” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, CiNii, Scholarly and Academic provides the most credible route into that argument.
Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 8, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q10726338. 1 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 3 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2002, 2005, 2020 and 2012.
Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “CiNii”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow CiNii primary sources, CiNii archive and CiNii research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “CiNii”?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
- What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “CiNii” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.