CNKI once again caused controversy due to the high price.
Recently, a screenshot of a notice for the "Literature and Information Center" of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has been forwarded by netizens many times. According to the notice, Tongfang CNKI Technology Co., Ltd. suspended the use period of the CNKI database by the Chinese Academy of Sciences from April 8.
The contradictions between the two sides are mainly concentrated in the subscription price of the CNKI database, which has maintained a relatively high increase for many years, and reached the level of tens of millions last year. In 2022, after several rounds of "arduous" negotiations between the Documentation and Information Center of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and CNKI, the latter still insisted on a renewal fee of nearly 10 million, and the group group plan given was quite "strict" in terms of the number of members and the price of a single family. Therefore, the Documentation and Information Center of the Chinese Academy of Sciences is considering forming an alternative guarantee through databases such as Wanfang and Weipu.
Screenshot of "Chinese Academy of Sciences Deactivating CNKI" online.
On April 19, Nandu reporters interviewed a number of teachers and students of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and learned that the above news was true. The discontinuation of CNKI has less impact on senior researchers who rely on foreign language literature, but has a greater impact on graduate students in liberal arts. A relevant person in charge of the Documentation and Information Center of the Chinese Academy of Sciences revealed to the Nandu reporter, "The two sides are still talking. ”
On the afternoon of April 19, CNKI released a note on the homepage of the website in response to this incident, saying that after the expiration of the 2021 annual agreement, the two sides agreed to extend the service until March 31. During the transition period after April 1, CNKI services were not stopped or interrupted. CNKI will also continue to provide normal services to the Chinese Academy of Sciences until the 2022 annual agreement is signed and the service is launched.
The note also added that this year, the Documentation and Information Center of the Chinese Academy of Sciences adjusted the procurement mode of some databases such as CNKI, from a unified centralized model to a joint procurement organized by the institutes in demand, and the two sides plan to complete the signing of the 2022 agreement in the near future after friendly consultation.
1
Repeated controversy: rapid price increases, content reduction
This is not the first time that CNKI has encountered an "embarrassing" situation. In the past few years, a number of universities and institutions have issued statements saying that their prices have risen too quickly and their service content has been reduced, which has plunged CNKI into the controversy of "shop bullying".
Peking University, Wuhan University of Technology, Nanjing Normal University, Taiyuan University of Technology, Jinling Institute of Science and Technology, Jimei University and other at least six universities have announced the suspension of use due to price issues. Wuhan University of Technology once listed a set of data, since 2000, CNKI's offer to the school has risen by more than 10% per year, from 2010 to 2016, an increase of 132.86%.
Guangzhou Library also announced the changes in the reduction of CNKI services in 2019. Since CNKI merged the network of some journals with paper distribution and stripped them from the Database of China Academic Journals (Online Edition), Guangtu readers will not be able to download this part of the journal in full in the library.
The discontinuation of CNKI, which includes 8540 Chinese academic journals, has undoubtedly affected university students and institutional researchers.
The relevant person in charge of the Literature and Information Center of the Chinese Academy of Sciences who was interviewed said that CNKI has a great impact on the study and research work of graduate students, especially the liberal arts and sciences that study Chinese issues. But the impact on senior researchers is small.
A doctoral student at a research institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences told Nandu reporters, "The suspension of CNKI does not have a big impact on my profession. Because I usually mainly look at foreign language literature, I also require publication in English journals. ”
2
Subscription prices are tied to usage
Public information shows that after a brief period of deactivation, the six universities have gradually resumed the use of CNKI databases.
Although the Documentation and Information Center of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has considered the formation of alternative guarantees for Weipu and Wanfang Database, the relevant person in charge also revealed that due to differences in scale, the two cannot completely replace CNKI. "The scale of CNKI database volume is greater than the sum of the other two, and the price is bound to be high."
All these show THE MARKET CONTROL OF CNKI in the field of Chinese academic data retrieval and download services.
Nandu reporter logged on to the government procurement network to inquire and found that many universities and institutions have completed the annual purchase of CNKI data services in January this year, with prices ranging from hundreds of thousands to millions.
Among them, the transaction amount of Beijing Normal University was 1.9335 million, Tsinghua University was 1.88 million, Chinese Min University was 1.6479 million, Nanjing University was 1.034 million, and Fudan University was 825,000.
In the procurement of similar databases, the price of CNKI is also enough to show its resource advantages. For example, South Central University for Nationalities spent 720,000 yuan to purchase the CNKI database, Wanfang data only needed 130,000, the superstar discovery system and the superstar reading show knowledge base were 230,000, and the Spischolar academic resources online and latitude discipline information service platform needed 184,000.
In contrast, why can the subscription price of the Chinese Academy of Sciences be tenfold to ten million? The relevant person in charge of the Literature and Information Center of the Chinese Academy of Sciences explained that database vendors usually price according to the amount of use. The Chinese Academy of Sciences system is a group purchase of units within the system, with the largest user scale in the country, the largest number of reading downloads, and a higher natural price.
In addition to the amount of usage, the price gap also depends on the purchase plan, and the buyer chooses from the hundred sub-libraries of CNKI according to their own needs.
3
Is large scale a monopoly?
On the one hand, we grasp a large number of journal resources, and on the other hand, we continue to accumulate users. Does CNKI's strength in price stem from its monopoly position in the market?
Article 17 of the current Anti-Monopoly Law prohibits business operators with a dominant market position from abusing their dominant market position, including selling goods at unfairly high prices, buying goods at unfairly low prices, or attaching unreasonable conditions to transactions.
That is to say, to determine whether CNKI is suspected of abusing market dominance such as monopolizing high prices, it is necessary to first define the relevant market and determine the dominant market position.
Although CNKI is already the leader in the industry, its market dominance is still insconclusive. Sun Jin, a professor at the Law School of Wuhan University and director of the Competition Law and Policy Research Center at Wuhan University, once wrote that the relevant market for the acts involved in the case should be defined as a free literature search service market or a paid literature reading and download market, which is still controversial in academic circles.
In the relevant market, whether the number of articles determines the share or the core journal resources is determined, there is no conclusion. In terms of the number of academic journals alone, there were nearly 4,000 exclusive and unique authorized journals included in the CNKI full-text journal database in 2019, accounting for 43% of the total number of journals. Among them, there are nearly 800 core journals, accounting for about 42% of all core journals. Compared with Wipro Consulting and Wanfang Data, CNKI has obvious advantages.
In terms of whether the behavior is abusive, Wang Xianlin, a distinguished professor at Shanghai Jiao Tong University and a member of the expert advisory group of the Anti-Monopoly Committee of the State Council, said in an interview with the media that if CNKI can prove that it has a dominant market position, it is necessary to have sufficient evidence to prove that its behavior constitutes abuse. The pricing problems that attract the most attention can be compared horizontally and vertically, cost analysis and other methods. For example, whether the increase is significantly higher than that of similar products, whether the price is raised by an abnormal margin under the condition of stable costs, and whether the continuous price increase is necessary for normal operation and the realization of normal benefits.
In this regard, the Anti-Monopoly Bureau of the State Administration for Market Regulation replied to the message of the Yangtze River Daily reporter on December 16 last year, saying that the State Administration for Market Regulation will verify and study. On March 9 this year, the Anti-Monopoly First Division replied again that the State Administration for Market Regulation was verifying the study.
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Written by: Nandu reporter Huang Huishi