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

When you pay

Society members pay no article processing charge, at any point. Authors who join the Society when they submit a manuscript get a discount on their first year of membership. Joining at any other time, including after a manuscript is accepted, is at the full membership price.

Authors who are not members choose, when they submit, how to handle the article processing charge:

• Pay only if accepted. Submit now and pay nothing. If your manuscript is accepted, we ask you to pay the charge, and copy-editing and typesetting start once it is paid. If your manuscript is rejected, or you withdraw it before it is accepted, you pay nothing.
• Pay at submission. Pay the charge when you submit. If the manuscript is not published, the refunds below apply.

You pay the amount shown to you when you submit, even if rates change before your manuscript is accepted. Payment is taken through Stripe Checkout; ScienceBank does not receive or store card details. If you join the Society before you have paid the charge, including during peer review or after your manuscript is accepted, you do not pay the article processing charge.

ScienceBank makes no charge for pages, colour figures, supplementary material or any language editing. The article processing charge described above is the only charge, and Society members do not pay it.

What happens if your manuscript is not published

If you chose to pay only if accepted, there is nothing to refund: you were never charged.

If you paid at submission and your manuscript reaches a final decision without being published, we refund the charge minus any reviewer and editor payments already made on it.

In practice that means:

1. Rejected at initial editorial assessment: refunded in full. No reviewer or editor payment has been made.
2. Rejected after assessment but before any review has been completed and paid: refunded in full.
3. Rejected after one or more paid reviews: refunded the charge minus those payments. We tell you the amount when we issue the decision.

If you withdraw your manuscript before an editorial decision has been issued, the charge is refunded in full. A manuscript withdrawn after a decision has been issued is not automatically eligible; contact us and we will look at it.

Refunds are issued when the decision is issued. If you have not received one within fourteen days, contact edops@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 edops@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 edops@sciencebank.com.