Cost of Knowledge

杨婷婷

The Chinese Academy of Sciences （CAS）， a leading government-affiliated think tank， has stopped using the China National Knowledge Infrastructure （CNKI） journal platform due to its high annual subscription price， sparking controversy about the affordability of Chinas largest academic database.

Founded in 1999， CNKI hosts over 280 million academic articles， or over 90 percent of all published papers in China. The company has long been criticized for its monopoly status and high fees—CAS allegedly paid 10 million yuan a year to subscribe. In the last decade， six universities， including the prestigious Peking University， have stopped using the database due to expensive renewal fees.

CNKI has also courted controversy for copyright infringement. In 2019， 89-year-old retired professor Zhao Dexin sued the company for collecting over 100 of his articles without his knowledge， which he had to pay to download. Last December， a court ruled that CNKI take down all Zhaos articles and pay him over 700，000 yuan. – Y.T.F5ED660F-89FD-4EA4-98AD-CE25FFD55D16