Hindawi

Hindawi
Name	Hindawi
Founded	1997
Founders	Emad El-Din Shahin; Mohammed El-Khouly (note: founders sometimes listed variably)
Headquarters	Cairo, London
Publications	Academic journals
Country	Egypt; United Kingdom

Hindawi is an independent academic publisher founded in the late 20th century that operates a portfolio of peer-reviewed journals spanning science, technology, medicine, and humanities. It grew from a regional press into an international open-access firm with headquarters associated with Cairo and London, later becoming part of a larger publishing group. Hindawi’s trajectory intersects with major players and events in scholarly communication, reflecting debates involving open access, peer review, digital publishing, and industry consolidation.

History

Hindawi was established in 1997 during a period of expansion in digital publishing alongside organizations such as Elsevier, Springer, Wiley-Blackwell, and Taylor & Francis. Early growth paralleled initiatives like the Budapest Open Access Initiative and technological shifts exemplified by arXiv and PubMed Central. The company expanded its journal portfolio through acquisition and launch strategies similar to those used by SAGE Publications and Oxford University Press. In the 2010s, Hindawi’s development intersected with mergers and acquisitions common in the sector, including transactions involving John Wiley & Sons and later integration with strategic partners connected to Frontiers-era debates. Its leadership interacted with scholarly stakeholders such as COPE and indexing bodies including Scopus and Web of Science as it pursued internationalization.

Business Model and Publishing Practices

Hindawi operates primarily on an article processing charge (APC) financing model, comparable to practices of PLOS, BMC (part of Springer Nature), and MDPI. Its business model emphasizes open-access distribution, online-only production, and editorial boards composed of academics affiliated with institutions like Harvard University, University of Cambridge, University of Oxford, Stanford University, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Manuscript handling workflows involve editorial management systems similar to platforms used by Editorial Manager and ScholarOne, and operations have been benchmarked against service providers such as CrossRef and ORCID. Hindawi’s editorial structure includes community editors and in-house staff, a pattern seen in publishers such as Cambridge University Press and Elsevier. APC pricing, waiver policies, and institutional agreements have been negotiated in contexts comparable to deals struck by Germany’s transformative agreements with Springer Nature and Elsevier consortia.

Open Access Policies and Journals

Hindawi’s portfolio emphasizes fully open-access titles, aligning with policy frameworks advocated by Plan S and funders including the Wellcome Trust and the National Institutes of Health. Journals span disciplines represented in directories and databases alongside titles indexed by MEDLINE, Chemical Abstracts Service, and MathSciNet. Subject areas include compare-and-contrast peers such as Nature Communications in multidisciplinary domains, discipline-specific outlets analogous to IEEE Journals in engineering, and specialized venues similar to Acta Mathematica. Hindawi participates in metadata sharing through initiatives like CrossRef and implements identifiers used by ORCID and DOI registries. Its journal list has included both long-established titles and newly launched series intended to cover niche fields comparable to those served by Frontiers and MDPI.

Controversies and Retractions

Hindawi’s rapid expansion and open-access model have occasioned scrutiny akin to controversies faced by Frontiers and MDPI. Concerns have centered on peer-review rigor and editorial oversight, similar to debates involving journals flagged by Retraction Watch and investigations by indexing services such as Clarivate Analytics. Retraction events and editorial-board resignations have echoed episodes that affected publishers like Elsevier and Wiley in high-profile cases. Responses included audits and policy revisions mirroring steps taken by PLOS and Springer Nature after community criticism. Instances of problematic papers led to delisting or temporary suspension from certain indexing services, comparable to actions seen in cases concerning Beall’s List-related scrutiny and later corrective measures used industry-wide.

Partnerships and Indexing

Hindawi engages with major scholarly infrastructure providers including CrossRef, ORCID, PubMed Central, Scopus (part of Elsevier), and Web of Science (managed by Clarivate). Institutional partnerships and transformative-read agreements have paralleled negotiations undertaken by MIT and national consortia such as those in Germany and Sweden. Collaboration with technology vendors and standards bodies mirrors relationships maintained by Wiley, Taylor & Francis, and Springer Nature. Hindawi has cooperated with research funders and university libraries to establish APC workflows similar to programs run by Wellcome Trust and the European Research Council.

Impact and Reception

Hindawi’s journals have contributed to citation networks tracked by Scopus and Web of Science, yielding metrics that place some titles alongside specialized journals from IEEE, American Chemical Society, and society publishers such as American Association for the Advancement of Science. Reception among academics is mixed: proponents compare Hindawi to open-access pioneers like PLOS for enabling broad dissemination, while critics align concerns with controversies seen at Frontiers and MDPI. Policy-makers and funders including UK Research and Innovation and the European Commission have included Hindawi-published articles within compliance considerations for open-access mandates. Overall, Hindawi’s role in scholarly communication reflects broader tensions between accessibility, quality control, and commercial consolidation exemplified by sector events like the Elsevier–university negotiations and the rise of transformative agreements.

Category:Academic publishing companies