The Web of Science database has delisted nearly two dozen journals from two of the fastest growing open-access publishers, Hindawi and MDPI. The delisting has stripped the journals of an impact factor, which is a citation-based measure of quality that is widely used in hiring, tenure, and promotion decisions. Although controversial, the metric carries weight with authors and institutions. The move highlights continuing debate about a business model marked by high volumes of articles, ostensibly chosen for scientific soundness rather than novelty, and the practice by some open-access publishers of recruiting large numbers of articles for guest-edited special issues.
