From Open Access Pioneer to Retraction Scandal: The Fall of Hindawi

Hindawi was once a shining star in the world of academic publishing. Founded in 1997, it championed open access, a movement that makes scientific research freely available to everyone. This democratization of knowledge was a welcome change from the traditional model where readers had to pay to access research.

However, Hindawi’s story took a dramatic turn in recent years. This article dives into the rise and fall of Hindawi, exploring its acquisition by a major publisher, the quality issues that came to light, and the ultimate fate of the Hindawi brand.

Hindawi went through a series of events:

• Acquisition: In January 2021, John Wiley & Sons, a major publisher, acquired Hindawi for a significant sum.
• Quality Issues: Later in 2022, it came to light that many of Hindawi’s published articles had issues with validity due to compromised peer review. This resulted in a large number of retractions (over 7,000 by the end of 2023).
• Financial and Brand Impact: The quality problems hurt Wiley financially and resulted in the CEO who championed the acquisition stepping down. Wiley also decided to stop using the Hindawi brand and integrate the journals into their own portfolio.