Does the price increase of Knowledge.com hurt the research environment? It certainly has hurt the research environment, no doubt about it. Academic evaluation is usually to provide knowledge of the network search as an important basis, especially when the rise of academic testing, knowledge of the network database is the most important check than the database. The high price increase detection, to graduate students caused a major economic burden, a 100,000-word doctoral dissertation, check a time will cost hundreds of dollars, the benefit is the database testing provider. Academic testing impact is ultimately the scientific research environment.
Recently, the Internet rumor that the Chinese Academy of Sciences decided to discontinue the use of KnowledgeNet due to the difficulty of bearing the ten million level of subscription renewal fees had caused a lot of discussion.
On the 18th, the relevant person in charge of the library of the Chinese Academy of Sciences confirmed that the rumor of nearly "ten million level" subscription renewal fees and the suspension of access to the knowledge of the matter is true. As for the future whether to restore access to the knowledge network, the relevant responsible person introduced, "Now it is hard to say, at least this year should not have this plan." The email shows that the CAS Literature and Information Center issued a notice saying, "Tongfang Knowledge Network Technology Co., Ltd (the publisher of the CNKI database) has suspended the CAS's access to the CNKI database: on April 8, the CNKI database of scientific and technological journals and dissertations of doctoral and master's degrees could not be downloaded."
Many colleges and universities had suspended the use of CNKI due to the high cost, and at least six colleges and universities had issued announcements that they had suspended the use of CNKI during the period of 2012 to 2021, while the reason was that the cost of CNKI had risen too high. However, after a period of suspension, because of the uniqueness of the content of the ZhiNET database and the difficulty in realizing one-stop searching of other databases, many colleges and universities have been pressured to continue to cooperate with ZhiNET.
Knowledge.com, which now has a relatively leading market position in the same market, has also revisited the question of whether it is suspected of monopolizing the market.
December 2021, "Zhi.com unauthorized inclusion of ninety-year-old professor's paper compensation of more than 700,000 yuan" had triggered a hot debate. Previously, China Knowledge Network unauthorized inclusion, Zhongnan University of Economics and Law professor Zhao Dexin more than 100 papers, the professor did not get the manuscript fee, download their own instead have to pay. The professor eventually sought legal action and won the case, and was awarded more than 700,000 yuan in damages. Zhi.com said "actively deal with the issue of Professor Zhao Dexin's works continue to spread on the Zhi.com platform. "2022 April 18, Professor Zhao once again published: "Zhi.com issued a note to apologize to me, never discussed with me the matter of the paper on the shelves." It has now been more than four months since Zhi.com publicly apologized, and Professor Zhao's more than 100 papers that were taken off the shelves are still unavailable on Zhi.com.
Related experts say the Anti-Monopoly Law is a very specialized law, and that only an anti-monopoly law enforcement agency or a judicial body can determine whether Knowledge.com is a monopoly. When the law enforcement or judicial authorities determine monopoly behavior, there are three steps: 1, define the relevant market; 2, determine whether there is a dominant market position; 3, whether there is an abuse of dominant market position. Experts also introduced: "have a dominant market position is legal, the abuse of such a position may violate the Anti-Monopoly Law", know whether the industry is suspected of monopoly, the investigation will take a longer time.
China Knowledge's position as a national knowledge infrastructure, with a strong public ****, can not be economic profitability as the highest criterion. In the face of the negative public opinion of ZhiNET, I hope ZhiNET seriously review the current operation strategy, respond to media concerns, not for their own interests. And let the multitude of people all talk about it. It should contribute to China's academic endeavors.