Does CNKI weave a "monopoly network"?

　　Our reporter Zhao Yuhan

　　How expensive is CNKI that even the Chinese Academy of Sciences can't use it?

Recently, CNKI, a well-known academic database, was once again pushed into the air of public opinion.

The reason is that a suspected circular of the Document Information Center of the Chinese Academy of Sciences circulating on the Internet shows that since the renewal cost of CNKI in 2022 is close to 10 million, it is planned to replace CNKI through other databases.

The news continued to ferment. Although CNKI responded later that the news was not true, some insiders of the Chinese Academy of Sciences said that it was indeed the case.

　　The incident once again ignited the complaints and doubts that "the world's bitter knowledge network has been around for a long time".

In the wave of controversy, yesterday, CNKI issued a statement through its official WeChat account, stating that it will continue to provide normal services for the institutes affiliated to the Chinese Academy of Sciences, which vaguely means "serving soft".

However, even if this incident can be resolved, problems such as high fees and copyright infringement have been frequently exposed in recent years, or CNKI's dominance in the local academic database market.

　　HowNet's High Charges Cause Controversy

　　According to a statement released by CNKI yesterday, in 2022, the Documentation and Information Center of the Chinese Academy of Sciences will adjust the procurement model of some domestic and foreign databases, including the CNKI database, from a unified centralized procurement model to a joint procurement model formed by a group of institutions in need.

After friendly negotiation, the work of adjusting the ordering mode of CNKI database is progressing in an orderly manner.

At the same time, CNKI stated that during the transition period, CNKI will continue to provide normal services to the institutes affiliated to the Chinese Academy of Sciences until the signing of the annual agreement and the start of services in 2022.

　　In fact, before the Chinese Academy of Sciences was "overwhelmed" this time, many universities had been suspended due to the high renewal fees of CNKI, including Wuhan University of Technology, Peking University, Taiyuan University of Technology, Nanjing Normal University, etc.

However, due to the high reliance on CNKI and the inability to find effective alternatives, some colleges and universities finally had to choose to compromise.

For example, Wuhan University of Technology cooperated with CNKI again after complaining that CNKI was quoting with a 100% price increase every year and announced that it would stop using it for several months.

　　Good business for content "porters"

　　It's not just the high fees it charges users that make HowNet under fire.

Since CNKI does not produce content, it has obtained massive amounts of paper resources at extremely low prices, or even in the form of infringement without spending a penny, for many years, which has also made many authors angry.

　　Last year, Zhao Dexin, an 89-year-old retired professor at Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, sued CNKI in court because more than 100 papers of her work were posted on CNKI without authorization.

Professor Zhao still needs to spend money to download his own papers without getting a cent for the manuscript.

In the end, the court ordered CNKI to compensate Zhao Dexin for more than 700,000 yuan.

Su Shaozhi, a former student of Professor Zhao Dexin and a retired professor, also won the lawsuit against CNKI.

　　After that, all the papers of Zhao Dexin and Su Shaozhi were removed from HowNet.

On April 18, Zhao Dexin spoke again: "After HowNet issued an apology to me, it never discussed with me about the publication of papers." This means that Professor Zhao's more than 100 papers cannot be published in the most important academic databases in China. spread in.

And Professor Su Shaozhi also encountered the same problem.

As the paper was removed from the shelves, it also affected the young authors who co-authored it.

This made Professor Su feel "somewhat regretful".

　　Due to being accused of infringement for many times, CNKI has not only obtained the authorization of papers from some academic journals at low prices, but also announced to academic researchers the standard of royalties that can be obtained after adopting papers.

However, the author needs to apply for the manuscript fee by himself, and the maximum is only 100 yuan in cash and 400 yuan in face value retrieval card, which is in sharp contrast to its "tens of millions" subscription fee.

　　Determining whether a monopoly or will be the first of its kind

　　One end charges a high price, and the other end collects papers at a low price or even free.

Tianyancha shows that the operating company of CNKI is Tongfang CNKI (Beijing) Technology Co., Ltd., which is 100% owned by Tongfang, an A-share listed company.

In the first half of 2021, Tongfang HowNet's main business revenue was approximately 496 million yuan, with a gross profit margin of 51.3%.

　　The reason why many "overlord clauses" can be formulated is because CNKI currently has a dominant position in the market.

According to the previous public information of HowNet, it contains more than 95% of officially published Chinese academic resources. Currently, it has more than 20,000 institutional users and more than 20 million individual registered users. The download volume of full texts reaches 2 billion each year, and the share of colleges and universities is high. It reaches 100%.

　　So, has CNKI created a "monopoly network"?

Previously, the State Administration for Market Regulation replied online in March this year that "the research is being verified".

According to Zhao Zhanzheng, a lawyer at Beijing Yunjia Law Firm and a special researcher at the Intellectual Property Research Center of China University of Political Science and Law, in order to determine whether CNKI constitutes an abuse of market dominance, it is necessary to first define the relevant market, and then determine whether CNKI has a strong market position in the relevant market. Market dominance, and finally determine whether there is a monopoly.

"In general, there is no relevant judicial or administrative penalty precedent in this regard." Zhao Zhan admitted frankly.

This also means that the definition of whether CNKI is a monopoly may be a judicial precedent.

　　Cheng Xusen, a professor at the School of Information of Renmin University of China and a researcher at the National Institute of Development and Strategy, believes that providing convenient retrieval conditions for academic dissemination is a good service in itself, but in terms of rights and charges, coordination and regulation are still needed.