Abstract and Applied Analysis

About Abstract and Applied Analysis

Overview

Abstract and Applied Analysis is a peer-reviewed, fully open-access mathematics journal devoted exclusively to research in abstract and applied analysis. Founded in 1996 by Athanassios G. Kartsatos of the University of South Florida, it is published by Hindawi Publishing Corporation — part of the John Wiley & Sons portfolio since Wiley's acquisition of Hindawi in 2021 — and appears monthly. The journal carries the print ISSN 1085-3375 and the online ISSN 1687-0409, with the ISO 4 abbreviation Abstr. Appl. Anal.

Over nearly three decades the journal has grown into one of the longest-running open-access mathematics journals, publishing papers from authors worldwide in areas spanning classical analysis, functional analysis, differential equations, optimization, and control theory. Its history also makes it a notable case study in the scholarly-publishing record: in 2014 it lost its Journal Citation Reports impact factor over anomalous citation patterns, as reported by Jeffrey Beall, and more recently — like other Hindawi titles — it navigated Clarivate's March 2023 delistings of Hindawi journals from Web of Science. Current metrics aggregators again report a Journal Citation Reports impact factor for the title, indicating it has re-entered JCR coverage (see the metrics section below for the full, sourced picture).

History

Founding by Athanassios G. Kartsatos (1996–2005)

Abstract and Applied Analysis was established in 1996 by Athanassios G. Kartsatos, a mathematician at the University of South Florida, who served as its editor-in-chief from the journal's founding until 2005. Kartsatos launched the journal as a dedicated venue for work at the interface of abstract and applied analysis — a deliberate pairing of pure-analytic theory with the differential equations, optimization, and control problems where that theory is applied. Publishing was handled by Hindawi Publishing Corporation, the open-access publisher headquartered in Cairo, Egypt, that built one of the earliest large-scale gold open-access journal portfolios.

The Martin Bohner years (2006–2011)

From 2006 to 2011, the editorship passed to Martin Bohner of the Missouri University of Science and Technology (Missouri S&T). Bohner — a mathematician whose research centers on dynamic equations on time scales and difference equations — led the journal through a period of rapid expansion typical of Hindawi's growth phase in the late 2000s. Under both founding editors the journal built a substantial international author base and was admitted to the major mathematical indexing services, including Scopus (coverage recorded from 1996 and continuously from 2002) and Mathematical Reviews / MathSciNet.

Transition to the board-led Hindawi model (2011–present)

In 2011 the journal converted to the editorial model then shared by all Hindawi journals: it no longer has a single editor-in-chief, and editorial decisions are made collectively by members of the journal's editorial board. Under this model, submitted manuscripts are handled by editorial board members rather than by a chief editor's office, with the publisher's in-house editorial staff managing the peer-review workflow. This board-led structure remained in place through Hindawi's acquisition by John Wiley & Sons in 2021, and the journal now operates within the Wiley Hindawi portfolio, with its official overview and indexing information hosted on Wiley Online Library.

Publication continuity

Scopus records coverage of the journal for 1996 and then continuously from 2002 to the present, and Project Euclid records coverage from 1996 to the current volume (Volume 2025), indicating nearly uninterrupted publication across the journal's 30-year history. The journal continues to publish regular research papers alongside special issues overseen by lead and guest editors — for example, special issues on topics such as periodic solutions and asymptotic analysis of ordinary differential equations, complex boundary value problems of nonlinear differential equations, functional differential and difference equations, and long-memory processes and applications.

Aims and scope

The publisher's official aims-and-scope statement (Wiley Online Library) describes Abstract and Applied Analysis as "a mathematical journal devoted exclusively to the publication of high-quality research papers in the fields of abstract and applied analysis," with emphasis placed on:

• Classical analysis — the core traditions of real and complex analysis, approximation theory, and special functions;
• Linear and nonlinear functional analysis — the study of infinite-dimensional vector spaces, operators on them, and nonlinear mappings, including fixed-point theory and operator equations;
• Ordinary and partial differential equations — existence, uniqueness, qualitative behavior, and numerical analysis of ODEs and PDEs, including boundary value problems, fractional-order equations, impulsive and functional differential equations, and dynamical systems;
• Optimization theory — methods for finding minima and maxima of functionals and functions, including variational approaches and applications to applied problems;
• Control theory — the mathematical design and analysis of systems that steer dynamical processes toward desired behavior.

The journal explicitly supports "the publication of original material involving the complete solution of significant problems" in these disciplines, and it encourages "the publication of timely and thorough survey articles on current trends in the theory and applications of analysis." In accessible terms: this is a journal for rigorous mathematical work — theorems with proofs — on analysis and its applications, rather than for computational experiments or case studies without substantial mathematical content. Past special-issue topics (such as fractional Brownian motion, boundary value problems, and stability theory of dynamical systems) illustrate the kind of focused mathematical territory the journal cultivates.

Editorial structure and peer review

As noted above, the journal follows the shared Hindawi editorial model adopted in 2011: there is no single editor-in-chief, and editorial decisions are made by members of the editorial board. In practice, this means that a submitted manuscript is assigned to an editorial board member who oversees the peer-review process for that paper — selecting reviewers, evaluating reports, and recommending a decision. The publisher's staff manage the technical workflow (submission systems, production, publication) behind the scenes.

Hindawi's published accounts of this model describe a community-journal approach in which large volunteer editorial boards (typically tens to hundreds of scholars across the portfolio) handle peer review, with board members committing to timely turnaround on assigned submissions. Special issues add another editorial layer: each special issue is steered by a lead editor together with guest editors — for instance, the journal's special issue on periodic solutions and asymptotic analysis of ODEs was led by Maoan Han of Shanghai Normal University with guest editors from the University of Western Ontario, the University of Maribor, and Swinburne University of Technology — who define the issue's scope and oversee review of its submissions.

Peer-review model as reported by third-party aggregators is single-blind; authors and editors should confirm the current review policy on the publisher's official journal page before submitting.

Article types

The journal publishes the following manuscript types (as listed on the journal's official article-processing-charges page):

• Research Article — full-length original research papers presenting complete solutions to significant problems;
• Review Article — timely, thorough survey articles on current trends in the theory and applications of analysis (published free of APCs);
• Editorial — editorial material;
• Letter to the Editor — short correspondence;
• Erratum — corrections to published articles.

Regular research articles appear in monthly volumes; recent volumes (e.g., Volume 2025) are published online as articles become ready, consistent with the journal's continuous-publication open-access workflow.

Indexing and abstracting

The publisher's official indexing list for Abstract and Applied Analysis (Wiley Online Library) names the following abstracting and indexing databases and services:

• Academic OneFile (Gale Cengage)
• Academic Search Alumni Edition, Academic Search Complete, Academic Search Research & Development (EBSCO)
• Advanced Technologies & Aerospace Database (ProQuest), Aerospace Database, Aluminium Industry Abstracts (ProQuest)
• CAS: Chemical Abstracts Service (ACS)
• Civil Engineering Abstracts (ProQuest)
• CNKI Scholar
• Computer and Information Systems Abstracts (ProQuest)
• Current Index to Statistics (ASA/IMS)
• Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)
• Engineering Source (EBSCO), EBSCO MainFile, EBSCO MegaFILE, EBSCOhost Connection, EBSCOhost Research Databases
• Electronics and Communications Abstracts
• ENERGY (FIZ Karlsruhe)
• Engineering Information (Ei) (Elsevier)
• Google Scholar
• InfoTrac (Gale Cengage)
• J-Gate Portal
• Mathematical Reviews / MathSciNet / Current Mathematical Publications (AMS)
• Mechanical and Transportation Engineering Abstracts
• ProQuest Computer Science Journals, ProQuest Engineering Collection
• SciTech Premium Collection (ProQuest)
• RePEc: Research Papers in Economics
• SCOPUS (Elsevier)
• Statistical Theory & Method Abstracts (Zentralblatt MATH)
• Technology Collection (ProQuest), Technology Research Database
• TOC Premier (EBSCO)
• VINITI (All-Russian Institute of Science & Technological Information)
• zbMATH (Zentralblatt MATH)

Of particular note to mathematicians: the journal is covered by the two principal reviewing databases of the discipline — MathSciNet (American Mathematical Society) and zbMATH — and by Scopus, with Scopus coverage recorded for 1996 and continuously from 2002 to the present. Third-party metric aggregators confirm Scopus and DOAJ coverage and Scopus subject categories of Analysis and Applied Mathematics (both Q4).

Impact metrics — and an honest account of the JCR delisting history

Historical impact factors

Third-party aggregators (e.g., scopedia.org, citing Journal Citation Reports data) record the following Journal Impact Factors for the journal before its delisting:

(Source: scopedia.org, compiling Journal Citation Reports figures. Year-by-year figures from aggregator pages should be treated as indicative; the publisher and Clarivate's JCR are the authoritative records.)

The 2014 delisting

In 2014 the journal lost its Journal Citation Reports impact factor. Scholarly-communication commentator Jeffrey Beall reported that the journal was delisted from the Journal Citation Reports for anomalous citation patterns, and the journal's Wikipedia entry records that it "faced delisting from the Journal Citation Reports (thus not receive an impact factor), for anomalous citation patterns," citing Beall's 2014 reporting ("The Scientific World Journal Will Lose Its Impact Factor — Again," Scholarly Open Access, archived October 2014). Anomalous citation patterns — such as concentrated or coordinated citation behavior that distorts a journal's citation count — are one of the grounds on which Clarivate suppresses or delists titles from the Journal Citation Reports.

The 2023 Hindawi delistings

In March 2023, Clarivate delisted 50 journals from Web of Science for failing to meet quality criteria, including 19 Hindawi titles (as reported by Retraction Watch and Science in March 2023, amid concerns about paper-mill activity and compromised peer review in Hindawi special issues). The published lists of the 19 delisted Hindawi journals do not include Abstract and Applied Analysis. Wiley subsequently closed four of the delisted journals and retracted roughly 1,200 articles for compromised peer review, and paused Hindawi special-issue publication for three months.

Current metrics (with attribution)

Several current metrics aggregators again report a Journal Citation Reports impact factor for Abstract and Applied Analysis, indicating that the title has re-entered JCR coverage. Because aggregator pages are refreshed on different schedules, figures differ slightly; readers should verify current values in the Journal Citation Reports itself:

• Journal Impact Factor: scijournal.org reports 0.670 for 2025 (up from 0.550 in 2024); journalsearches.com reports 0.5; scholar9.com reports 0.5. Figures are computed from Journal Citation Reports data.
• SCImago Journal Rank (SJR): 0.221 for 2024 (Q4 in Analysis and Applied Mathematics), 0.207 in the latest SCImago listing (Q4). SCImago data derive from Scopus.
• h-index: scijournal.org reports 75 (2025); SCImago-based aggregators report 71. The difference reflects different document sets and time windows.
• Scopus cites-per-document (2-year): approximately 0.59 (per SCImago-based countryofpapers.com metrics).
• Mathematical Citation Quotient (MCQ): 0.21 (per Project Euclid, reflecting MathSciNet citation data).

The journal is a Q4 title in its Scopus categories (Analysis; Applied Mathematics). Prospective authors should weigh these metrics alongside the journal's indexing footprint, publication speed, and the historical record described above.

Open access policy and article processing charges

Abstract and Applied Analysis is a fully open-access journal: all articles are freely available to read, download, and share immediately upon publication. Authors retain copyright of their work, which is released under a Creative Commons Attribution License, enabling unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction of an article in any medium provided the original work is properly cited. (These terms come from the journal's official article-processing-charges page, archived via the European Mathematical Information Service mirror.)

Publication costs are funded by article processing charges (APCs) billed to the submitting author upon acceptance, in place of subscription charges. Historically, the journal's official APC schedule listed:

• Research Article: $675 USD (£450 / €475);
• Review Article, Editorial, Letter to the Editor, Erratum: free.

Since Wiley's acquisition of Hindawi, APCs for Hindawi titles have been revised. Third-party aggregators currently cite figures of roughly $1,080 USD (journalsearches.com, citing the Wiley journal page) and €877.50 (countryofpapers.com) for this journal. Because aggregator figures can be outdated, authors should confirm the current APC on the publisher's official journal page before submitting. Institutional memberships and waiver arrangements historically applied to Hindawi journals; current Wiley waiver policies should be checked with the publisher.

Publication ethics

Hindawi is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), the Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association (OASPA), the Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers (ALPSP), the International Association of Scientific, Technical and Medical Publishers (STM), and the Publishers International Linking Association (Crossref), and supports ORCID identifiers. Under Wiley's stewardship, Hindawi journals — including this one — have been subject to the publication-integrity measures Wiley introduced after the 2022–2023 paper-mill investigations, which included mass retractions of articles with evidence of systematic manipulation of the publication process and the temporary pause of special-issue publishing. Authors should consult the publisher's current author guidelines for the journal's policies on authorship, plagiarism, data availability, and corrections.

Archiving

Hindawi's published archiving practice is to preserve all of its journal content in Portico, the permanent electronic-scholarly-journal archive, and through the LOCKSS initiative. These arrangements apply portfolio-wide to Hindawi titles, providing long-term preservation of the journal's backfile independent of the publisher's own platform. Readers seeking historical volumes will also find the journal's content mirrored on services such as Project Euclid (coverage 1996–current) and in the AMS and zbMATH reviewing databases.

Publication schedule and submission

The journal publishes monthly and operates a continuous-publication workflow, with articles appearing online as they complete production. Third-party aggregators report an average submission-to-publication time of roughly 27 weeks (citing the journal's own website). Manuscripts are submitted electronically through the publisher's manuscript tracking system. Authors are advised to prepare manuscripts in the journal's required format, to review the current author guidelines on the official journal page, and — given the APC regime — to confirm the current charges and any available waivers before submission.

How to cite the journal

• Title: Abstract and Applied Analysis
• ISO 4 abbreviation: Abstr. Appl. Anal.
• Print ISSN: 1085-3375
• Online ISSN: 1687-0409
• Publisher: Hindawi Publishing Corporation (Wiley)
• Journal DOI prefix: 10.1155/4058

Summary

Abstract and Applied Analysis is a long-running, fully open-access mathematics journal with a continuous publication record stretching back to 1996. Founded by Athanassios G. Kartsatos and later led by Martin Bohner, it has operated since 2011 under a board-led editorial model without a single editor-in-chief, and since 2021 within the Wiley portfolio. It serves the mathematical analysis community — from classical and functional analysis to differential equations, optimization, and control theory — with regular research articles, review articles, and special issues. It is indexed in Scopus, DOAJ, MathSciNet, and zbMATH among many other services, publishes under a Creative Commons Attribution license, and is preserved via Portico and LOCKSS. Its metric history includes a 2014 delisting from the Journal Citation Reports over anomalous citation patterns; current aggregators again report a JCR impact factor, but prospective authors are encouraged to verify the latest figures and the publisher's current policies directly before submitting.