Fees and payment

Publishing on ScienceBank is funded by a single charge per article. Each academic community sets what it pays the reviewers who handle its manuscripts, ScienceBank sets what editors are paid, and the charge an author pays is derived from those rates. ScienceBank provides the platform, the editorial operations around it, and the financial administration behind it.

This page sets out what publishing costs, when it is paid, when it is refunded, and how editors and reviewers are compensated. All amounts are in US dollars.

Publishing fees

The article processing charge

An author who is not a Society member pays an article processing charge (APC) of 1,000 USD per article.

The charge has two parts: an editorial envelope, which funds the editors and reviewers who handle the manuscript, and a fixed operations component. A community that sets its reviewer rate high enough to push the combined editorial envelope above the standard amount raises its own APC by the difference; no other community's charge is affected. Where that applies, the higher amount is shown to the author before any payment is taken. The editor rate that also feeds the envelope is set by ScienceBank, not by the community. At present no community publishing on ScienceBank has set rates above the standard envelope, so the charge is 1,000 USD in every community.

Authors who hold a Society membership pay no article processing charge. The cost of the article is carried by the membership. Submitting as a member records a subsidy obligation against the Society for the same amount the article processing charge would have been, and nothing is charged to the member at submission. Membership itself is priced by country band, so what a member pays depends on where they work or live; the exact price is quoted before checkout. An optional monthly Pro add-on, priced on the same country bands, is available to paying members and is separate from publishing charges.

What the fee covers

1. Editorial operations: running the peer-review workflow, the submission and decision process, technical checks, and similarity screening.
2. Compensation for editors and reviewers: reviewers are paid at the rate the receiving community has set; editors are paid at a rate ScienceBank sets.
3. Production: copy-editing and typesetting of accepted manuscripts.
4. DOI registration: every published article is registered with Crossref under the 10.61340 prefix (Crossref fees).
5. Metadata preparation: preparing and depositing the structured metadata that makes an article findable and citable.
6. Hosting and open-access distribution: running the platform and serving published articles openly, at no charge to readers.
7. Platform development: continued development of the peer-review platform.

Waivers and reduced fees

Membership is the platform's main route to a lower cost, and membership pricing is already banded by country, so researchers in lower-income economies pay less for the membership that covers their APC.

Two further routes exist:

• Institutional agreements. An institution can hold a contract carrying a set number of membership seats. A researcher with a verified, ROR-validated affiliation to that institution claims a seat directly on the platform and then submits as a member, with no APC. Institutions wishing to discuss a contract should write to edops@sciencebank.com.
• Individual requests. ScienceBank considers individual requests case by case. A granted concession takes the form of a Society membership provided at no cost, which removes the APC for the term of that membership. Requests go to edops@sciencebank.com.

Paying the fee

A non-member pays the APC at submission, through Stripe Checkout, before the manuscript enters the editorial workflow. Payment is handled entirely by Stripe; ScienceBank does not receive or store card details. A member's submission carries no payment step.

Society membership is purchased separately, as a full year, also through Stripe Checkout.

Refunds

Where a manuscript that carried an article processing charge is rejected, or is withdrawn by its author before an editorial decision has been issued, ScienceBank refunds the charge automatically when that outcome is recorded. No request is needed. A manuscript withdrawn after a decision has been issued, or that fails to reach publication for any other reason, is not refunded automatically — write to help@sciencebank.com.

The refund is the amount charged, less any editorial compensation already disbursed for that manuscript:

• Rejected before the desk check is complete: no editorial work has been paid for, and the charge is refunded in full.
• Rejected after the desk check but before any review has been submitted: no one is paid for the desk check, so the charge is refunded in full.
• Rejected after reviewer compensation has already been paid out: the amount already paid to reviewers is retained, and the remainder is refunded. Compensation that has been earned but not yet released in a weekly batch is not deducted from the refund.

Refunds are returned to the original payment method through Stripe.

Society membership is not refunded mid-term. Cancelling a membership ends it immediately: member benefits, including the waived article processing charge, stop on the day you cancel, and the fee already paid is not returned. Cancelling also stops any future charge. Billing errors and disputes are handled case by case — write to help@sciencebank.com.

Compensation for editors and reviewers

Compensation rates

A community configures what it pays per completed review, and that rate determines what its reviewers receive and, through the editorial envelope described above, contributes to its article processing charge. What editors are paid per manuscript handled is set by ScienceBank and is not community-configurable.

Every community currently pays the same rates — 100 USD per completed review and 150 USD per manuscript handled — and a community may change its reviewer rate, so the figure that applies to you is the one in your community's settings. When a reviewer is invited by email, the rate is stated in the invitation before they accept. Reviewers invited inside the platform, and editors taking on a manuscript, are not shown a rate at the point of invitation. Where a community has set its rate at zero, the invitation carries no compensation line and the work is unpaid.

How compensation is paid

Compensation is paid in US dollars. The route depends on the country ScienceBank holds for you — your country of residence, or the country of your primary affiliation:

• Stripe Connect — transfer to your own bank account, in the countries Stripe Connect supports.
• Bank transfer through QuickBooks — where Stripe Connect is not available but a serviced bank transfer is. This route is not yet operating: payees in the country it covers, currently Indonesia, cannot be paid automatically, and their compensation is held and settled by hand.
• Direct bank transfer — a transfer processed by hand where neither of the above is available. The ScienceBank finance team collects your bank details directly and verifies them before a first payment can be released.

The platform resolves the route for you. On Stripe Connect you complete setup yourself, on Stripe's own hosted flow; on the other two routes the ScienceBank finance team contacts you to collect your bank details securely.

Compensation policies

Payment timing

A reviewer's compensation becomes payable when they submit their review, whatever the manuscript's eventual outcome. An editor's compensation becomes payable only if the manuscript is accepted, and is paid to the assigned handling editor.

Payments are made in a weekly batch every Friday. Amounts that become payable during a week are included in that week's batch.

Payout setup

A payment cannot be released until your payout details are complete and verified for the route that applies to you. Accepting work is never blocked on this; only the payment is. Where a payment cannot be released, the money is not cancelled — the record is held. For Stripe Connect payees it re-enters the next weekly batch automatically once onboarding completes. For the other routes, write to help@sciencebank.com once your details are in place so the held payment can be released.

Payment standards

ScienceBank may adjust or withhold compensation where a contributor has not met the professional standards the work requires. This may follow:

• repeated or unexplained failure to meet agreed deadlines;
• unprofessional conduct, including hostile or aggressive communication and discriminatory remarks;
• superficial or inadequate reviews, as determined by editorial oversight;
• failure to follow the review or editorial guidance given by the community or by ScienceBank.

Anyone affected is notified and may appeal within 14 days by writing to edops@sciencebank.com.

Tax and banking

ScienceBank is not a financial services provider and cannot advise on any country's tax law. Each recipient is responsible for their own tax position and for any charges their bank applies to an incoming payment.

ScienceBank will help with problems encountered during payout setup, but managing your payout account and keeping your banking details current remains your responsibility. For supported countries and currencies, see Stripe's support pages and documentation.

For any question about fees, payments, or compensation, write to help@sciencebank.com.