Digital Publishing and the New Academic Ecosystem: An ANT Approach to the Recent Disputes over a Chinese Journal Database Giant

As digital publishing gains momentum globally, it presents unique challenges in different regions and cultures. To address these challenges, it is important to understand the specificities of each local context. In light of Actor Network Theory (ANT), which advocates an interdisciplinary approach through an association of related factors from different fields, this article examines problems of Chinese digital publishing, focusing on one giant database, called the Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI). The discussion falls into three parts. First, the self-positioning of CNKI. As the sole academic database giant, it encounters a dilemma between making profits and serving the public – it has been criticized for charging high subscription fees and for committing intellectual property infringements. Second, the scholars, while becoming more dependent on digital publishing and such a giant database as CNKI, are bewildered by the fact that they become less capable of protecting their academic autonomy as well as their intellectual copyright. Third, CNKI’s near monopoly has damaged domestic academic justice, which becomes detrimental to the development of Chinese academic journals and the international transmission of Chinese scholarship. The article concludes with an inquiry into possible solutions for building a new academic ecosystem in the digital era, locally as well as globally.