Recently, an email from the Chinese Academy of Sciences that could not afford the nearly 10 million renewal fees of CNKI circulated on the Internet, causing netizens to pay attention. On April 19, CNKI's official WeChat public account issued a note saying that it would continue to provide services to the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
In fact, this is not the first time THATC has been embroiled in a price dispute. In 2021, Zhao Dexin, an 89-year-old retired professor, sued CNKI for unauthorized inclusion of more than 100 of his papers, winning the lawsuit, and received more than 700,000 yuan in damages, causing public concern. In December 2021, the organizers of CNKI issued a document apologizing to Zhao Dexin and promised to "face up to the problem and solve the problem". Prior to this, Nanjing Normal University, Jinling Institute of Science and Technology, and Wuhan University of Technology had all issued statements on the price increase of CNKI.
The cost of ordering CNKI by the Chinese Academy of Sciences is close to 10 million yuan
In April, an email claiming that the Chinese Academy of Sciences could not afford cnki's nearly 10 million subscription fees attracted the attention of netizens.
According to online mail, since 2008, the Documentation and Information Center of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has borne the full subscription cost and opened the database of CNKI (CNKI) scientific and technological journals and doctoral and master's degree dissertations throughout the hospital. In 2021, the total cost of the CNKI database subscription of the Chinese Academy of Sciences Group will reach the level of tens of millions, and the high ordering cost of the database has become the "Big Mac" in the introduction of resources by the Chinese Academy of Sciences Group. In 2022, the Documentation and Information Center of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Tongfang CNKI (Beijing) Technology Co., Ltd. actively discussed the cost and ordering model, but after many rounds of arduous negotiations, the CNKI database still insisted on a renewal fee of nearly 10 million, and the group group plan it gave was quite harsh in terms of the number of members and the price of a single family.
According to the above situation, the Documentation and Information Center of the Chinese Academy of Sciences is considering forming an alternative guarantee for the CNKI database through the Weipu Journal Database and the Wanfang Dissertation Database.
On April 19, CNKI's official WeChat public account issued a note saying that in 2022, the Documentation and Information Center of the Chinese Academy of Sciences adjusted the procurement model of some databases at home and abroad, including CNKI database, from a unified centralized procurement model to a joint procurement model organized by institutions in need. After friendly consultation, the work of adjusting the subscription model of CNKI database is being promoted in an orderly manner, and the order content selected by each institute plans to complete the group work, sign the agreement and start the 2022 annual service in the near future.
After the expiration of the 2021 annual agreement, in order to meet the literature access needs of scientific researchers and teachers and students, the Documentation and Information Center of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and CNKI agreed to extend the subscription service to March 31. During the transition period after April 1, CNKI continued its services without service stoppage or interruption. CNKI will also continue to provide normal services to the institutes affiliated to the Chinese Academy of Sciences until the 2022 annual agreement is signed and the service is launched.
On the same day, the staff of the Documentation and Information Center of the Chinese Academy of Sciences told Nandu reporters that they would not accept any external interviews.
The retired professor once sued CNKI for unauthorized inclusion of papers
In fact, this is not the first time that CNKI has been caught up in a fee dispute.
According to Nandu's previous report, in 2021, Zhao Dexin, an 89-year-old retired professor, sued CNKI for unauthorized inclusion of more than 100 of its papers, and finally won the lawsuit and received more than 700,000 yuan in compensation, causing public concern. Late at night on December 10, 2021, the organizers of CNKI issued a letter apologizing to Zhao Dexin and promised to "face up to the problem and solve the problem".
In the same month, Nandu reporters found that CNKI lowered the download price of master's degree thesis. After the adjustment, the download price of the master's degree thesis is 7.5 yuan / book, and the doctoral dissertation is 9.5 yuan / book. Compared with the previous price of 15 yuan / book for master's thesis and 25 yuan / book for doctoral dissertation, the price is as high as 50%.
CNKI customer service once told nandu reporters that "the price has been reduced for a while", and said that master's and doctoral dissertations have lowered the download price. As for whether other categories of products are likely to reduce prices, customer service said it is not clear.
As a "just need" website for domestic universities, research institutes, academic research, etc., the establishment of CNKI is related to the "China National Knowledge Infrastructure" (CNKI) construction project initiated by Tsinghua University and Tsinghua Tongfang in 1999, which aims to achieve the dissemination, sharing and value-added utilization of knowledge resources in the whole society. In 2004, Tongfang CNKI (Beijing) Technology Co., Ltd. was established and is currently one of the holding subsidiaries of Tongfang Shares, an A-share listed company. The organizer behind the CNKI portal (www.cnki.net), China Academic Journals (CD-ROM Edition) Electronic Magazine Co., Ltd., was registered in 1997; in 2014, its enterprise type was changed from "ownership by the whole people" to "limited liability company (sole proprietorship of legal person)".
According to the "2020 Annual Report of Tongfang Co., Ltd.", in 2020, the main business income of Tongfang CNKI was 1,167.5807 million yuan, and the gross profit margin was 53.93%.
Taking the library of Shenyang University of Technology as an example, it purchased 26 Chinese databases in 2022, with a total of 3,067,080,000 yuan in winning bids (transactions), of which only 1 package group of "CNKI China Knowledge Network" paid 690,000 yuan to Tongfang CNKI (Beijing) Technology Co., Ltd., accounting for 22.5% of the total purchase amount.
CNKI has been embroiled in high-fee controversy on many occasions
Academic "just need", but the "protest" of CNKI's expensive fees has appeared repeatedly. In the past decade, many universities and institutions have issued statements pointing out that their "price increases are too fast" and "service content is reduced", which has plunged CNKI into the controversy of "shop bullying".
As early as 2012, the library of Nanjing Normal University issued an announcement that "due to the excessive price increase of the 'CNKI China Knowledge Network' database merchants, it has not been possible to reach a use agreement, and from January 1, 2013, the library platform (including journals, newspapers, conferences and dissertations) will be suspended." ”
In June 2014, the library of Jinling Institute of Science and Technology notified the institutes (departments) and departments that the contract between the library and Tongfang CNKI Technology Co., Ltd. expired, and a new round of purchase agreements had been negotiated for 3 months, "all due to the company's excessive price increase and service content reduction and no agreement", but the library is still trying to actively communicate and negotiate with service providers.
Some institutions have also bluntly said that CNKI has "increased prices outrageously". On January 5, 2016, the library of Wuhan University of Technology said that since 2000, Tongfang CNKI's offer to the school has increased by more than 10% every year, especially in 2012, the increase was as high as 24.36%, from 2010 to 2016, the increase was 132.86%, and the average annual increase was 18.98%.
The statement wrote that the negotiations between university libraries and CNKI are a game: "Although the full-text download of CNKI's database has been temporarily suspended, causing inconvenience to readers, negotiations to safeguard the rights and interests of schools are equally important... The support of teachers and students is the strong backing of the library, please understand the teachers and students of the school. ”
On March 31 of the same year, the Peking University Library also publicly issued the "Notice that CNKI May Interrupt Service", which had a greater social impact. The notice also points out that the reason why the school may not be able to renew CNKI in a timely manner is that "the price increase of the database provider is too high", the school is not willing to compromise easily, if the reader cannot access the series of databases of CNKI at that time, it is recommended to choose other databases of the same type, open access databases and paper resources.
Nandu reporters noted that most of the above-mentioned "deactivation of CNKI" incidents ended with the resumption of subscriptions shortly after, but new cases are still emerging. While some academic institutions renew the CNKI database, some universities have reduced their dependence on the CNKI database.
In January 2021, the Library of Jimei University issued an announcement that due to the rising price of CNKI database resources and budget reasons, the library has recently adjusted the subscription plan on the basis of statistical analysis of resource utilization rate and expert demonstration. In 2021, the university will renew CNKI's academic journals, yearbook databases and economic and social big data research platforms, add new journals, basic education journals, academic series and high-quality literary and art journals, and no longer renew doctoral master's degree dissertations, patents and citation databases, and recommend that readers make good use of other platforms as supplements.
Written by: Nandu reporter Yang Tianzhi Hou Jingjing Intern Tan Ruye