CNKI Readiness & Application Support

Overview

“We publish good work that Chinese researchers would cite, but they never find it — and when we tried to contact CNKI we could not even work out who to write to.” CNKI is China’s largest academic database, indexing more than 10,000 journals and cross-linking with most Scopus and JCR titles. Unlike DOAJ or Scopus, inclusion is arranged through content-licensing agreements negotiated with Tongfang Knowledge Network (TKN), and the process is relationship-based and bilingual.

NeucitePress handles that process end to end: eligibility review against CNKI’s selection standards for international journals, metadata and abstract preparation, a formal approach to CNKI/TKN in your name, bilingual correspondence throughout the negotiation, and support while your backfile and new issues are integrated.

Who this is for: established journals with at least one year of continuous publication and ten or more peer-reviewed articles, particularly in STEM, social sciences, economics, law and management, that want a readership and author base in the Chinese academic market.

What’s Included

• Eligibility assessment — review against CNKI’s content selection standards, subject-series mapping (A–J), peer-review and editorial-standards check, and a gap analysis report
• Metadata and technical preparation — titles, abstracts, keywords and affiliations formatted to CNKI specifications; structured English abstracts checked; references structured for CNKI’s citation network; DOI and ISSN verification
• CNKI/TKN liaison — formal introduction on your behalf, guidance on licensing terms, support during negotiation, and all English–Chinese correspondence managed for you
• Content integration support — backfile preparation, ongoing new-issue feed setup, and verification that the journal appears correctly in CNKI search
• Weekly progress reports during the active liaison phase and a single project manager throughout
• Six-month support window covering CNKI’s review and activation period

How It Works

CNKI’s internal review and activation typically take a further 2–4 months after agreement and are outside NeucitePress’s control.

What Stays With Your Editors

The journal’s editors keep final authority over reviewer selection, editorial assessment and acceptance, and the journal alone decides whether to sign any licensing agreement CNKI proposes. NeucitePress runs the assessment, preparation, liaison and integration process.

Important Limitations

• Inclusion is decided solely by CNKI / Tongfang Knowledge Network. NeucitePress prepares, remediates and submits; it cannot sell inclusion.
• The service fee covers assessment, preparation and liaison work regardless of CNKI’s decision; it is not refundable for non-inclusion.
• The price shown is NeucitePress’s professional fee. Any terms, fees or revenue arrangements in CNKI’s licensing agreement are between the journal and CNKI and are separate.
• You must hold the rights to license your content for digital distribution, and CNKI’s terms must be compatible with your existing open-access license.
• Covers one journal; multi-journal pricing on request.

Common Questions

Does the journal need to publish in Chinese?
No. CNKI includes international English-language journals across disciplines. Structured English abstracts are required, and bilingual abstracts improve discoverability further.

How is this different from a DOAJ or Scopus application?
DOAJ and Scopus have public online application forms and published criteria. CNKI works through negotiated content-licensing partnerships with TKN, which is why the liaison and bilingual correspondence are the core of this service.

Does CNKI inclusion help with Scopus or Web of Science?
Not directly; each database decides independently. Greater visibility among Chinese researchers can increase readership and citation of your articles over time, which is one factor those databases look at.

Every engagement can begin with the Journal Health Check.