Cookie Policy

Effective Last updated

ScienceBank uses a small number of cookies to keep you signed in, keep your account secure, and remember your language. We also offer optional analytics, which runs only if you agree to it. We do not use cookies to advertise to you, and we do not track you across other websites.

1. What a cookie is

A cookie is a small text file a website stores in your browser. It lets the site remember something between one page and the next — for example, that you are signed in.

2. What ScienceBank uses, and why

Most of our cookies are first-party, meaning cookies set by ScienceBank itself. No third party can read them. The one exception is the optional analytics described in Section 3, which you choose.

Before you sign in, we set one cookie:

  • NEXT_LOCALE — remembers whether you are reading ScienceBank in English, Spanish or Indonesian. Expires when you close your browser.

When you sign in or use particular features, we set:

  • __Secure-authjs.session-token — keeps you signed in. Expires after 30 days, or immediately when you sign out.
  • __Secure-authjs.csrf-token — a security cookie that prevents another website from submitting forms as you.
  • sb-webauthn-register / sb-webauthn-authenticate — hold a one-time security challenge while you set up or use a passkey. Expire after 5 minutes.
  • orcid_write_state — protects the ORCID connection process. Expires after 10 minutes.
  • sb_sponsor_activity — signs you out of the sponsor portal after 30 minutes of inactivity, because that area shows financial information.

Each of these is necessary for the service to work or to keep your account secure. Most are marked HttpOnly, which means the code running in your browser cannot read them at all.

When you answer the cookie banner, we set one more:

  • sb_analytics_consent — remembers whether you accepted or declined analytics, so we do not ask again. Expires after one year. It records your choice and nothing else.

3. Analytics, and your choice

We use Google Analytics 4 to understand which pages people read, which articles get found, and where readers arrive from. It helps us decide what to publish and what to fix.

Analytics is off until you accept it. On your first visit we ask, and until you answer:

  • no analytics cookies are stored on your device;
  • no identifier for you is created or kept.

If you accept, Google Analytics sets its own cookies to recognise a returning browser and measure visits. If you decline, we remember that and nothing further is stored. Declining changes nothing about how the site works — every page, article and feature behaves identically.

Separately from Google Analytics, and whether or not you accept it, we keep anonymous totals of how many people reach a few specific pages — for example, how many people look at membership pricing. These are counters and nothing else: a number goes up by one. No cookie is set, no identifier is created, nothing is stored on your device, and they contain nothing that could be traced back to you or to your visit. We keep them because when analytics is declined they are the only way to tell whether a page is doing its job.

You can change your mind at any time by deleting the sb_analytics_consent cookie in your browser settings; we will ask again on your next visit.

We have configured Google Analytics with IP anonymisation on, and with advertising signals, ad personalisation and ad storage permanently switched off.

4. What we still do not do

  • We do not use advertising cookies, tracking pixels, or social-media trackers.
  • We do not build advertising profiles, and we do not track you across other websites.
  • We do not sell or share your personal information, as those terms are used in the California Consumer Privacy Act and comparable US state laws. There is therefore nothing for a "Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information" request to act on.

5. Controlling cookies

You can delete or block cookies in your browser settings; every major browser offers this under Privacy or Security. If you block ScienceBank's cookies, you can still read published articles, but you will not be able to sign in — authentication depends on the session cookie.

To opt out of analytics specifically, choose Decline on the cookie banner, or delete the sb_analytics_consent cookie and choose Decline when asked again.

6. Related documents

This policy covers cookies specifically. How we handle personal data more broadly is described in our Privacy Statement, and how we use AI tools is described in our AI Use Policy.

7. Changes to this policy

If we change what we store on your device — particularly if we add anything requiring consent — we will update this policy before the change takes effect, and the "Last updated" date above will reflect the revision. Questions: admin@sciencebank.com.