Hindawi was one of the world's largest fully open-access publishers - a Cairo-founded company (1997) that grew to more than 230 Gold OA journals across science, technology, and medicine, known for low APCs and fast turnaround. Today the name survives mostly as a cautionary tale and a legacy imprint: Wiley acquired Hindawi in January 2021 for $298 million, uncovered systematic paper-mill infiltration of its special issues, retracted more than 11,300 compromised articles, and retired the Hindawi brand. The roughly 200 surviving journals were integrated into Wiley's portfolio by mid-2024 and now operate under Wiley's editorial and pricing policies.

This guide explains what happened, which former Hindawi journals are still credible venues, what open access and APCs look like under Wiley, and how to check a title before you submit.

• 1997 - Ahmed Hindawi and Nagwa Abdel-Mottaleb found Hindawi Publishing Corporation in Cairo; it later converts its whole portfolio to Gold open access and establishes Hindawi Limited in London (2013).
• January 2021 - Wiley acquires Hindawi for $298 million to accelerate its open-access growth.
• Fall 2022 - Wiley identifies large-scale paper-mill manipulation of Hindawi's guest-edited special issues; the first ~500 retractions land, and special-issue publishing is paused.
• March 2023 - Clarivate delists 19 Hindawi journals from Web of Science for failing editorial quality criteria, including flagship titles; four heavily compromised journals are closed outright.
• December 2023 - Wiley announces it will stop using the Hindawi name, absorbing the journals into the Wiley portfolio, after disclosing an $18 million quarterly revenue decline tied to the cleanup.
• Mid-2024 - Integration completes: the remaining ~200 journals move to Wiley Online Library and Wiley branding; Wiley closes 19 more journals, having retracted more than 11,300 papers in total.

At its peak the portfolio spanned 230+ fully open-access journals across engineering, computer science, materials, mathematics, chemistry, and biomedicine. There were no imprints or subscription titles - every journal was Gold OA under a CC BY licence, and many were broad-scope megajournal-style venues built around guest-edited special issues. That special-issue model powered rapid growth (and revenue), but it was also the vector for the paper-mill fraud: fake guest editors pushed thousands of fabricated manuscripts through compromised review between roughly 2020 and 2022.

All former Hindawi journals remain fully open access under Wiley. Fees are now set on Wiley's per-journal price list, so treat historic figures as orientation only and check the journal's page on Wiley Online Library before submission.

Hindawi journals historically used single-anonymized peer review with fast decision times. The 2022-2024 investigations showed that guest-edited special issues had bypassed genuine review at scale, which is why Wiley: paused special issues for three months in 2023, rebuilt guest-editor vetting, deployed paper-mill detection screening on submissions, and retracted more than 11,300 articles. Post-integration, former Hindawi titles follow Wiley's standard editorial and integrity processes, and turnaround is slower than the old Hindawi pace because screening is stricter.

1. Confirm the journal still exists and is indexed. Nineteen titles closed in 2024 (plus four in 2023), and several others lost Web of Science coverage. Check the Web of Science Master Journal List and Scopus source list for the current status.
2. Find the journal on Wiley Online Library. hindawi.com content and submissions have moved to Wiley's platform and submission systems - the journal homepage tells you where to submit.
3. Prepare your manuscript. Former Hindawi titles use the Hindawi numbered citation style and standard Wiley formatting; SciSpace templates cover the major titles.
4. Check your OA funding route. See whether a Wiley Read & Publish agreement at your institution covers the APC before paying out of pocket.
5. Submit and respond to screening queries. Expect integrity checks (data availability, author verification) that did not exist pre-2023.

Hindawi was a member of COPE, OASPA, and STM, and - despite the scandal - its remediation is frequently cited as the largest research-integrity cleanup ever undertaken: mass retractions were issued openly under COPE guidelines rather than quietly ignored. Under Wiley, the former Hindawi titles inherit Wiley's integrity policies, retraction procedures, and data-sharing requirements.

It depends on the title. The portfolio was never uniformly bad: many journals kept sound editorial standards and remain indexed in Scopus, Web of Science, and PubMed under Wiley. But the safest workflow is title-by-title due diligence - check current indexing, recent retraction activity, and editorial-board stability - rather than relying on the (now retired) brand either way.