If a database is inadequate in terms of its description, unclear with respect to the terms of use, or is not downloadable, it may not be fully used, cited or rightly acknowledged by the (research) communities. This is even true for databases with high-quality datasets.

The Life Science Database Archive maintains and stores the datasets generated by life scientists in Japan in a long-term and stable state as national public goods. The Archive makes it easier for many people to search datasets by metadata (description of datasets) in a unified format, and to access and download the datasets with clear terms of use (see here for detailed descriptions).

In addition, the Archive provides datasets in forms friendly to different types of users in public and private institutions, and thereby supports further contribution of each research to life science.