"Recently, according to the preliminary verification, the State Administration of market supervision filed an investigation into the suspected monopoly of HowNet according to law." At about 16:00 on May 13, the short message published on the website of the State Administration of market supervision aroused widespread concern. Subsequently, @ Guangming Daily published an interpretation article by Shi Jianzhong, a member of the expert advisory group of the antitrust Commission of the State Council and a professor of China University of political science and law.
Shi Jianzhong pointed out that the types and quantity of Chinese academic documents, the number of journals and the number and quality of exclusive journals, the scale and coverage of users, the degree of user dependence and market sales included in HowNet have been in a leading position for a long time. Unfair format terms are set in academic document collection and service agreements, and the price of whether purchasing academic documents or selling knowledge digital products is almost free from competition constraints. According to the analysis, we can basically determine that HowNet has a dominant market position.
He also wrote that by integrating all aspects of information, HowNet signed exclusive agreements with a large number of journals and universities to restrict their cooperation with other third-party academic literature database service platforms, lock in high-quality academic resources in the upstream and artificially create barriers to knowledge flow, making it difficult for other competitors to compete fairly with them and affecting the sharing and dissemination of knowledge. At the same time, HowNet obtains ultra-high profits by collecting at low prices and selling at high prices. In the absence of legitimate reasons, it has significantly increased the database price for many years, increased the burden of users and damaged the interests of consumers. The above behavior of HowNet has destroyed the fair competition order of relevant markets, hindered the dissemination of academic documents and knowledge sharing, damaged the ecological environment of knowledge innovation, deviated from the original intention of building "China's knowledge infrastructure project", and aroused great concern in the academic, educational, publishing and Book circles all over the country.
How many organizations can bypass the HowNet? Surging news noticed in the inquiry of China government procurement network that the library of Sichuan preschool normal college recently explained the single source procurement of CNKI series database project of China HowNet, and also revealed the number of exclusive partners, user scale and coverage of HowNet.
According to relevant procurement publicity, as of January 2022, "CNKI series database of China HowNet" has collected more than 8500 kinds of academic journals, with more than 60 million documents, and the number of document issues / articles, with a collection integrity rate of 99%; More than 1900 kinds of core journals are included; The integrity rate of core journals and important evaluation database source journals is higher than 95%; The integrity rate of other academic journals is higher than 93%.
As of January 2022, HowNet has collected more than 481000 doctoral dissertations. Among them, 241 training units cooperate exclusively with CNKI; Including 16 "first-class universities" and 63 "first-class disciplines", accounting for 38% and 45% of the total number of "first-class universities" and "first-class disciplines" respectively. The doctoral theses of 507 doctoral training units (except those involving state secrets) are included, accounting for 99% of doctoral training units in China. The construction of "first-class university" and "first-class discipline" has achieved 100% coverage of academic dissertations in Colleges and universities. In terms of master's thesis, as of January 20, 2022, HowNet has collected more than 4.806 million master's thesis. Among them, 464 training units cooperate exclusively with CNKI; Including 16 "first-class universities" and 63 "first-class disciplines", accounting for 38% and 45% of the total number of "first-class universities" and "first-class disciplines" respectively. The master's degree theses of 787 master's training units (except those involving state secrets) are included. The construction of "first-class university" and "first-class discipline" has achieved 100% coverage of academic dissertations in Colleges and universities.
The procurement publicity also said that the "CNKI series database of China HowNet" has given priority to digital publishing and network initial publishing, further accelerated the speed of document updating and output, and enhanced publishing, data publishing and co creative publishing, so as to make the resources more valuable and authoritative. To sum up, "CNKI series database of China HowNet" is the only full-text database that can provide journals, doctoral and master's papers, conference papers, newspapers and higher education journals at the same time. It has created the only knowledge service platform that fully meets the needs of teaching, scientific research, professional construction and Curriculum construction of our university, so the product is unique.
In fact, many colleges and universities still plan or have purchased HowNet databases from a single source recently.
For example, the single source procurement publicity of CNKI database service procurement project of Dalian Maritime University announced by China government procurement network on May 7, with the project budget of 990000 yuan.
According to the publicity, the database meets the needs of teaching and scientific research, discipline construction and talent training of Dalian Maritime University. It plays an important supporting role in the development and double first-class construction of the University. It is an indispensable resource for teaching, scientific research and academic research, and has the necessity of procurement. The product has outstanding characteristics and is exclusive and unique. The database of this purchase is the product developed by tongfangzhiwang (Beijing) Technology Co., Ltd., with a single source and channel. Therefore, the database can only be purchased from the only data service provider and can only be purchased from a single source.
"Today, the State Administration of market supervision and administration has filed an investigation into the suspected monopoly of HowNet. We firmly support and fully cooperate." On the afternoon of May 13, HowNet responded that its development is inseparable from the care and love of the party and the state, the guidance and help of all sectors of society, and the trust and support of the majority of authors and readers. We will take this investigation as an opportunity to conduct profound self-examination, comprehensive self-examination, complete rectification, operate in accordance with the law, innovate the development model, assume the social responsibility of China's knowledge infrastructure, strive to build HowNet into a world-class academic resource information platform with Chinese characteristics, promote academic communication and exchange, promote national scientific and technological innovation, and provide better services for the majority of authors and readers.