Below we will try to answer some of the questions that you may have regarding our publication model. We will keep updating this page to answer as many questions as possible. If your questions have not been answered here, please don’t hesitate to contact our support team.
Reviewers are paid following a tier system, where the first three completed peer review processes* per year are paid $100 (USD). After that, they are compensated with $150 (USD) per completed peer review process*. The tier resets every year. The specified amounts are inclusive of any taxes that may apply.
*Please note that one peer review or handling process may include several rounds of reviews of the same paper. Generally, we advise against more than two rounds of reviews per paper to minimize the workload for editors and reviewers. Please also note that the initial decision to reject a paper without reviews will not count as a completed editing or review process and will therefore not be financially compensated. Likewise, the editor is not compensated when they assign action editors to handle a given paper.
Once you have completed a review process, the editor will check whether your reviews meet the minimum quality requirements (see the answer to "What are the quality requirements for reviews"). Once they approve your reviews, you are requested to send us an invoice. We will pay this invoice within 14 days of receipt.
Once you send us an invoice, we pay you through an international banking transaction within 14 days. We can also offer payment via PayPal or a gift card.
Yes, we offer to donate your payment to one of the following charities/organizations:
- International Red Cross
- Doctors Without Borders
- Amnesty International
- Center for Open Science
As an editor or reviewer, you sign online contracts (powered by SignNow) that hire you as independent consultants to complete the relevant task for us. That means that you remain self-employed throughout the process. Please note that you at no time are being employed by us.
You have the sole responsibility for paying taxes following the laws and regulations in your country. The payment you receive from us is tax inclusive, meaning that it does not cover or include any potential taxes you may have to pay.
Our publication model can only work if reviewers take their work seriously. We, therefore, conduct regular quality checks to ensure that the minimum requirements for the provided reviews are met. You will only be paid if all of the following criteria are met:
- Reviews comply with common academic standards and norms.
- All reviews were provided within 3 weeks (preferably 2 weeks) after getting access to the original or revised manuscripts. An exception to this rule needs approval by our staff.
- The reviews must demonstrate a thorough engagement with the reviewed paper, documented by a first starting paragraph summarizing its key points and content.
- The reviews need to include detailed, constructive, and accurate feedback on the strength and weaknesses of the paper (including paragraphs that highlight ways in which the paper can be improved).
- The review needs to cover all parts/sections of the paper (e.g., introduction, methods, results, discussion).
- The language must be professional and polite; the reviewer must comply with ethical and scientific standards and norms.
- The reviewer has completed several multiple-choice questions concerning the reviewed paper.
- If the editor decides to send the paper out for several rounds of reviews, the reviewer has to complete all requested reviews to be compensated.
We have provided detailed guidelines for reviewers here.
The guidelines can be found here.
Our terms of use and service can be found here.
Like other open-access publisher, we charge authors an Article Processing Charge (APC) upon acceptance of their paper. Unlike other publishers, we use a part of the APC to pay editors as well as reviewers.
Our mission is to show that running a fair and profitable (for-profit) academic publisher is possible and to change publishing norms broadly. We do not believe this is achievable with a non-profit model that cannot compete with established publishers in impact and reach.
