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Hindawi (publisher)

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Hindawi was a publisher of peer-reviewed, open access, scientific journals active in scientific, technical, and medical (STM) literature. It was founded in 1997 in Cairo, Egypt, and purchased in 2021 for $298 million by John Wiley & Sons, a large US-based publishing company.[3]

Hindawi
Parent companyWiley
StatusInactive
Founded1997 (1997)
FounderAhmed Hindawi
Country of originEgypt[1]
Headquarters locationLondon[1]
DistributionWorldwide
Publication typesScientific journals
No. of employees42 (in 2019)[2]
Official websitewww.hindawi.com

By 2022, Hindawi was publishing over 250 journals, including 64 journals indexed within the Science Citation Index Expanded, and 1 journal indexed within the Social Sciences Citation Index,[4] with a total of 64 journals ranked with an impact factor. Since 2007, all of Hindawi's journals have been open access and published under a Creative Commons Attribution License (CC-BY).[5]

The quality of peer review at a number of Hindawi journals has been criticized. In 2010, Hindawi was classified as a possible predatory publisher by Jeffrey Beall, but was removed from the list following a successful appeal.[6] Over the next years, articles in Hindawi grew exponentially, the majority being from special issue routes.[7] In 2023 and after over 7000 article retractions in Hindawi journals related to the publication of articles originating from paper mills, Wiley announced that it will cease using the Hindawi brand and will integrate Hindawi's 200 remaining journals into its main portfolio.[8][9] The Wiley CEO who initiated the Hindawi acquisition stepped down in the wake of those announcements.[10]

History

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The Hindawi Publishing Corporation was founded in 1997 in Cairo by Ahmed Hindawi and his wife Nagwa Abdel-Mottaleb.[11][12][13] The company's first journal was the International Journal of Mathematics and Mathematical Sciences, which it acquired from a prior publisher. By 2006 Hindawi Publishing owned 48 journals and had about 220 employees. It published journals in the physical and life sciences and medical research.[13] In February 2007, Hindawi moved to a complete open access model on all of its journals.[14][15] By 2007, Hindawi was publishing around 100 journals, 21 of which were ISI listed, and claimed to be second largest publisher in PubMed Central, a biomedical and life sciences open access journal repository. Hindawi journals used a reviewing process that does not assign chief editors to its journals, had no hierarchy among editorial board members, and had no contractual relationship with the editorial board members.[16] The company had a 40% article acceptance rate. Article publication fees averaged $800, varying by journal and page count, being significantly less than prices charged by major open access competitors including BioMed Central and the Public Library of Science.[17]

Two corporations acted under the name of Hindawi: Hindawi Limited, based in London,[18] and Hindawi Publishing Corporation (HPC),[19] based in Cairo. The original publishing company, Hindawi Publishing Corporation, was founded in Cairo in 1997 by Ahmed Hindawi and Nagwa Abdelmottaleb [20] but later acted merely as a publishing services provider to Hindawi Ltd.[1] Hindawi Ltd was founded in London in 2013 by Ahmed Hindawi and had acquired all the assets and intellectual property of Hindawi Publishing Corporation by 2017.[21]

In January, 2021, John Wiley & Sons acquired Hindawi Limited for an enterprise value of $298 million.[3]

In the fall of 2022, Hindawi announced the retraction of more than 500 articles in 16 of its scientific journals because of cheating involving some of its editors and peer reviewers.[22] By the end of 2023, the number of retractions in Hindawi journal had increased to over 7,000 and Wiley announced that it would discontinue the Hindawi brand and operate the journals under a new approach.[9] The Wiley CEO who initiated the Hindawi acquisition stepped down in the wake of the bad news.[10]

In May 2023, Hindawi closed four journals.[23] Another 19 journals were shuttered the following year.[24]

Assessment of Hindawi journals

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Between 2009 and 2011, the number of Hindawi journals nearly doubled, and Hindawi's output increased from 2,500 to 13,000 articles per year.[a] By 2011, Hindawi was publishing 300 journals,[a] and had a staff of over 450 people.[25] The growth of the company has come from publishing new start-up journals, as well as acquisitions of established journals[13] such as Psyche, an entomological journal founded in 1874.[26] Two major factors facilitating the company's growth have been the low labor costs and well-educated middle class of Cairo.[25] As of April 2019 Hindawi's publishing portfolio includes 233 journals.[27]

As of April 2023, the Norwegian Scientific Index lists 195 Hindawi journals, one of which are level X (dubious i.e. possibly predatory), 18 marked level 0 (not academic), the rest marked level 1 (standard academic).[28]

In March 2023, multiple Hindawi journals were delisted from the Web of Science for concerns with their editorial practices.[29]

Assessments and responses to controversial articles

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In 2010, a subset of Hindawi journals were included in a list of suspected predatory open access publishers by Jeffrey Beall; however Beall later removed Hindawi from his list after re-evaluating the company, calling it a "borderline case".[30] Beall has also criticized Hindawi for representing the offshoring of scholarly publishing,[31] a view which has been criticized as neocolonialist.[32][clarification needed]

Some light probes of the editorial quality of the review process of Hindawi publications using sting operations uncovered no obvious problems. In 2013, the two Hindawi journals (Chemotherapy Research and Practice and ISRN Oncology) targeted in the Who's Afraid of Peer Review? sting operation rejected the fake paper.[33] Similarly, the Hindawi journal Advances in Medicine was included as a target of a 2017 sting operation with a Star Wars–themed fake research paper and rejected the paper.[34]

In 2014, three Hindawi journals faced delisting from Journal Citation Reports for anomalous citation patterns, particularly within journal self-citations and an excess of between-journal reciprocal citations. The three journals include The Scientific World Journal, although the problems with this journal occurred partly before Hindawi acquired the journal.[35] Open access journalist Richard Poynder considered this incident anomalous in and of itself,[12] and Retraction Watch has noted that Hindawi's sanctions for authors who manipulate citations – including 3 year bans of author submissions – are stricter than those of many other journals.[36]

In 2015, after an internal investigation, Hindawi flagged 32 published papers for re-review due to three editors subverting the peer review process with fake email accounts.[37]

In an opinion written in 2016, academic publishing critic Leonid Schneider compared Hindawi to another open access publishing group Frontiers Media, concluding overall: "It seems therefore, the Egyptian Hindawi is a traditionally-operated academic publisher like any other, be it OA or subscription one."[38]

In 2018 a Hindawi journal, Journal of Environmental and Public Health, published an epidemiological paper on glioblastoma, none of the authors of which had academic appointments.[39] The paper was accompanied by a press release that overstated the results of the paper in media interviews by the authors, and exaggerated the importance of findings with respect to the hypothesis that cell phones are dangerous.[39][40]

In December 2020, the Chinese Academy of Sciences published a list of journals that may suffer from issues of scientific quality and other risk characteristics.[41] There were four Hindawi group journals in the 65 journals given in its initial list. The list was updated in December 2021 and reduced to only 41 journals, of which six Hindawi journals were included: Complexity, Shock and Vibration, Advances in Civil Engineering, Scientific Programming, Discrete Dynamics in Nature and Society, Journal of Mathematics (list of Hindawi academic journals).[41]

In January 2023, Zhejiang Gongshang University (浙江工商大学) in Hangzhou, China, announced it would no longer include articles published in Hindawi, MDPI, and Frontiers journals when evaluating researcher performance.[42][43]

In 2023, several concerns about the linkage of some Hindawi's journals (e.g. Mathematical Problems in Engineering) with research paper mills were noted.[44][45][46] After that, Wiley detected paper mill signs on 10-13 % of papers in Hindawi.[47] In 2023, Hindawi has retracted over 8,000 articles, exceeding the total number of retractions from all publishers combined in any prior year.[48]

Business model

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Hindawi charges authors an article processing charge.[13][49] The charges vary by journal and are lower on average than other large open-access publishers.[17] By 2012, the company had a profit margin of around 50%, higher than the 2008 average of 35% for commercial publishers.[50]

Most Hindawi journals do not have editors-in-chief, but rather have editorial boards consisting of staff and a volunteer board of 30 to 300 scholars.[25] There is some concern that this style may lead to lower quality output,[51][52] or at least the potential for it. However, journalist Poynder din the lead to a 2012 interview of Ahmed Hindawi, "there is no evidence that Hindawi's editorial approach, or the way in which it recruits authors, has had any serious consequences so far as the quality of its papers is concerned," although he notes that some articles contain poor copy-editing.[12] At least one Hindawi journal (Pain Research and Management[53]) has an editor-in-chief.

Hindawi has also been criticized for its use of unsolicited e-mail, with some claiming it is the chief method of attracting manuscripts and editorial board members.[54][55][56][57] However, others claim that e-mail spam from many publishers is increasing, with open access advocate Stevan Harnad of the University of Southampton stating that while the practice should be frowned upon:

I think it's true that Hindawi spams no more than other legitimate businesses and organizations spam today. That may not be an admirable standard but it's a realistic one. In this context, Hindawi's promotional messages don't deserve to be singled out for stigmatization.[12]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b based on projections from the first 8 months of 2011
  1. ^ a b c "A 2018 update on Hindawi's Corporate Structure". about.hindawi.com. 2018-03-14. Retrieved 2019-04-02.
  2. ^ "Meet the Team". about.hindawi.com. 2018-08-05. Retrieved 2019-04-02.
  3. ^ a b "Wiley Announces the Acquisition of Hindawi" (Press release). 2021-01-05.
  4. ^ company, Web of Science Group, a Clarivate. "Web of Science Master Journal List". Web of Science Group, a Clarivate company. Retrieved 2022-11-23. {{cite web}}: |last= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  5. ^ "Hindawi Publishing Corporation - Open Access Memberships". 2013. Retrieved 2013-02-01.
  6. ^ Butler, Declan (2013-03-01). "Investigating journals: The dark side of publishing". Nature. 495 (7442): 433–435. Bibcode:2013Natur.495..433B. doi:10.1038/495433a. ISSN 1476-4687. PMID 23538810.
  7. ^ Hanson, Mark A.; Barreiro, Pablo Gómez; Crosetto, Paolo; Brockington, Dan (2024-11-08). "The strain on scientific publishing". Quantitative Science Studies: 1–21. doi:10.1162/qss_a_00327. ISSN 2641-3337.
  8. ^ "Paper mills are bribing editors at scholarly journals, Science investigation finds". Science. 2024-01-18. doi:10.1126/science.zrjehzt.
  9. ^ a b "Wiley to stop using "Hindawi" name amid $18 million revenue decline". Retraction Watch. 6 December 2023. Retrieved 2023-12-08.
  10. ^ a b "Up to one in seven submissions to hundreds of Wiley journals flagged by new paper mill tool". Retraction Watch. March 2024. Retrieved March 17, 2024.
  11. ^ Hindawi, Ahmed (2009-01-01). "2020: A Publishing Odyssey". Serials: The Journal for the Serials Community. 22 (2). Ubiquity Press, Ltd.: 99–103. doi:10.1629/2299. ISSN 0953-0460.
  12. ^ a b c d Poynder, Richard (September 17, 2012). "The OA Interviews: Ahmed Hindawi, founder of Hindawi Publishing Corporation" (PDF). Open and Shut?.
  13. ^ a b c d Shaw, Shelli (Sep 2006). "Hindawi Publishing: Catering to Open Access" (PDF). Information Today. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2009-07-11. Retrieved 2010-11-02.
  14. ^ McClure, Marji (May 2008). "Case Study: Open Access Yields Solid Growth for Hindawi". Information Today. 25 (5): 1–50 (3p).
  15. ^ Harris, Siân (April 2007). "Encouraging innovation". Research information. Archived from the original on 2010-08-18. Retrieved 2010-11-02.
  16. ^ Schneider, Leonid (2016-02-15). "OA publishers Hindawi vs. Frontiers: similar, yet different". For Better Science. Retrieved 2021-10-31.
  17. ^ a b Brown, David J.; Boulderstone, Richard (2008). "Business Models as Drivers for Change". The Impact of Electronic Publishing: The Future for Libraries and Publishers (2nd ed.). Saur Verlag. ISBN 9783598115158.
  18. ^ "HINDAWI LIMITED overview - Find and update company information - GOV.UK". find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk.
  19. ^ "BUSINESS". www.zawya.com.
  20. ^ Peters, Paul (2007). "Going all the way: how Hindawi became an open access publisher". Learned Publishing. 20 (3): 191–5. doi:10.1087/095315107X204049. S2CID 1835925.
  21. ^ "A 2018 update on Hindawi's corporate structure". 2018-03-14.
  22. ^ Miller HI, Young SS (January 31, 2023). "How Scientific is 'Peer-Reviewed' Science?". American Council on Science and Health. Retrieved April 3, 2023.
  23. ^ "Evolving our portfolio in response to integrity challenges". Hindawi. May 2, 2023. Retrieved 2024-05-15.
  24. ^ Subbaraman, Nidhi (May 14, 2024). "Exclusive | Flood of Fake Science Forces Multiple Journal Closures". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 2024-05-15.
  25. ^ a b c Loy, Matthew (2011). Hindawi Publishing Corporation: Growing an Open-Access Contributor-Pays Business Model. Case Study Update 2011 (PDF) (Report). New York: Ithaka S+R.
  26. ^ "Psyche- The Club Journal". The Cambridge Entomological Club. Retrieved 17 October 2014.
  27. ^ "Journals". Hindawi Publishing Corporation. Retrieved 2 April 2019.
  28. ^ "Publisher info (Hindawi Limited)". Norwegian Register / kanalregister.hkdir.no. Retrieved 21 February 2023.
  29. ^ Quaderi, Nandita (20 March 2023). "Supporting integrity of the scholarly record: Our commitment to curation and selectivity in the Web of Science". Clarivate blog | Academia and Government. Retrieved 24 March 2023.
  30. ^ Butler, Declan (2013). "Investigating journals: The dark side of publishing". Nature. 495 (7442): 433–5. Bibcode:2013Natur.495..433B. doi:10.1038/495433a. PMID 23538810.
  31. ^ Jeffrey Beall. "Hindawi's Profit Margin is Higher than Elsevier's – Scholarly Open Access". Scholarly Open Access. Archived from the original on 2015-03-07.
  32. ^ Rob Virkar-Yates (May 16, 2013). "Are 'predatory' publishers an American export?". Analysis & Opinion. Research Information. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Europa Science Ltd.
  33. ^ Bohannon, John (3 October 2013). "Who's Afraid of Peer Review?". Science. 342 (6154): 60–65. Bibcode:2013Sci...342...60B. doi:10.1126/science.342.6154.60. PMID 24092725.
  34. ^ "Predatory Journals Hit By 'Star Wars' Sting". 2017-07-02. Archived from the original on 2019-04-02. Retrieved 2019-04-02.
  35. ^ "The Scientific World Journal Will Lose its Impact Factor — Again | Scholarly Open Access". Archived from the original on 2014-10-17.
  36. ^ "A first? Papers retracted for citation manipulation". Retraction Watch. 2012-07-05. Retrieved 18 October 2014.
  37. ^ "30+ papers flagged because editors may have "subverted the peer review process" with fake accounts". Retraction Watch. 2015-07-08. Retrieved 9 July 2015.
  38. ^ Schneider, Leonid (2016-02-15). "OA publishers Hindawi vs. Frontiers: similar, yet different". For Better Science. Retrieved 2021-10-31.
  39. ^ a b "Expert reaction to paper looking at brain tumour incidence and lifestyle factors". Science Media Centre. May 3, 2018.
  40. ^ Mazer, Benjamin (16 July 2018). "Bad Faith: When conspiracy theorists play academics and the media for fools". Science-Based Medicine. Archived from the original on 12 December 2019. Retrieved 28 July 2018.
  41. ^ a b CoS partition table team, Chinese Academy of Sciences (31 December 2020). "《国际期刊预警名单（试行）》正式发布 - "International Journal Early Warning List officially released (Trial)"". mp.weixin.qq. Retrieved 1 January 2022.
  42. ^ ForeignFriends. "MDPI, Frontiers & Hindawi are blacklisted by a university". Weixin Official Accounts Platform. Retrieved 2023-01-27.
  43. ^ "突发：一高校将Frontiers、MDPI、Hindawi三大OA出版社旗下所有期刊纳入黑名单！_社会科学_教育部_学科". www.sohu.com. Archived from the original on 2024-02-17. Retrieved 2023-01-27.
  44. ^ Kincaid (2023). "Nearly 20 Hindawi journals delisted from leading index amid concerns of papermill activity". Retraction Watch.
  45. ^ "Norway demotes Hindawi journal after claims one published a stolen paper". Retraction Watch. 29 March 2023.
  46. ^ "Wiley paused Hindawi special issues amid quality problems, lost $9 million in revenue". Retraction Watch. 9 March 2023.
  47. ^ Oransky, Ivan (2024-03-14). "Up to one in seven submissions to hundreds of Wiley journals show signs of paper mill activity". Retraction Watch. Retrieved 2024-03-15.
  48. ^ https://retractionwatch.com/2023/12/19/hindawi-reveals-process-for-retracting-more-than-8000-paper-mill-articles/
  49. ^ Kho, Nancy Davis (Dec 2010). "Hindawi Publishing: A Working OA Model" (PDF). Information Today.
  50. ^ Van Noorden, Richard (27 March 2013). "Open access: The true cost of science publishing". Nature. 495 (7442): 426–429. Bibcode:2013Natur.495..426V. doi:10.1038/495426a. PMID 23538808.
  51. ^ Beall, Jeffrey (2013). "Predatory Publishers Threaten to Erode Scholarly Communication" (PDF). Science Editor. Retrieved 2 April 2019.
  52. ^ "8 Ways to Identify a Questionable Open Access Journal". American Journal Experts. Retrieved 2019-04-02.
  53. ^ Hindawi Publishing Corporation. [1] Cairo. Retrieved on March 2, 2016.
  54. ^ "Predatory Journals Hit by 'Star Wars' Sting". 2017-07-22. Archived from the original on 2019-04-02. Retrieved 2019-04-02.
  55. ^ "Hindawi: Another Dodgy OA Publisher". Aardvarchaeology. 9 January 2013. Retrieved 22 June 2016.
  56. ^ "Dear legitimate open-access publishers: stop spamming!". Sauropod Vertebra Picture of the Week. 4 June 2013. Retrieved 22 June 2016.
  57. ^ Schneider, Leonid (2016-02-15). "OA publishers Hindawi vs. Frontiers: similar, yet different". For Better Science. Retrieved 2019-04-02.
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