The infamous journal ‘Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine’ is no more!

If I remember correctly, I was – some 20 years ago – a founding member of the editorial board of the journal Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine (EBCAM). I also published several papers there, but eventually I became concerned about what seemed to be going on at the journal (it seemed a money-making scam to me) and withdrew my cooperation. Since then, I have repeatedly posted on this blog about this strange journal, e.g.:

• EBCAM: an alt med journal that puzzles me a great deal
• Some alternative medicine journals should be de-listed
• Fraud and greed can cause enormous harm

Yesterday,I came across this announcement by John Wiley & Sons, now the publisher of EBCAM:

Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine ceased publishing as of September 2024.

Trying to find out more about this surprising action, I found this little note:

John Wiley & Sons, a global publication house with revenues north of $2 billion, announced on May 19, 2024, that it was closing 19 journals it acquired as part of its 2021 purchase of Egypt-based Hindawi publishing company, citing large-scale research fraud.

Next, I went on to Medline and saw that EBCAM had to retract 744 (!) of its papers.

That amount of retractions must be a world record!

I thus understand that the journal was no longer tenable. But what exactly did happen? What brought about the decision to cease publication?

I have no idea (various searches for answers were unsuccessful) and would be most grateful, if someone in the know could fill me in.