Hindawi (Wiley)

Hindawi is an open-access academic publisher specializing in peer-reviewed scientific, technical, and medical (STM) journals. Founded in Cairo, Egypt, in 1997 by Ahmed Hindawi and Nagwa Abdelmottaleb, it began as a subscription-based publisher before pivoting to open access around 2003 and converting its entire journal portfolio to pure open access by roughly 2007—making it one of the first publishers to do so. Its operations were later headquartered in London.

On January 5, 2021, John Wiley & Sons announced its acquisition of Hindawi Limited for approximately $298 million, expanding Wiley's open-access footprint. At the time, Hindawi reported about $40 million in 2020 revenue and published more than 200 peer-reviewed open-access journals, with Wiley highlighting its efficient, low-cost publishing platform. The business operates as a gold open-access STM publisher funded primarily by article processing charges (APCs), serving researchers, academic institutions, and libraries worldwide.

Beginning in 2022–2023, Hindawi journals were heavily affected by 'paper mill' fraud—organized submission of fabricated or manipulated research—primarily via its 'Special Issues' program. Wiley shut down the program and retracted more than 8,000 articles over 2023, with several titles closed or delisted from major indexes, contributing to tens of millions of dollars in revenue impact for Wiley. Following these problems, Wiley announced it would phase out the Hindawi brand and fully integrate the portfolio into the Wiley brand and platform.

This context is relevant to innovation in the space because the episode underscores the challenges open-access, APC-funded publishing models face around research integrity, peer-review safeguards, and fraud detection at scale.