How credit and payment work

Who gets credit for a subscriber

Credit is decided once, at the moment a reader starts a paid membership, using the journal’s own membership records. The rules are applied in this order:

1. The article they subscribed on. If the reader became a paying member while on an article, its author is credited.
2. The last article they read. If they subscribed from the homepage or the signup page, credit goes to the author of the last article they read before paying.
3. The journal. If no article can be found, the subscriber is credited to the journal and no contributor is paid.

Your dashboard shows which rule applied to each subscriber. Once decided, credit never moves, even if that reader goes on to read other contributors.

What you earn on each payment

The amounts are taken from the actual payment, so a price change or a discount flows through automatically. An example in round numbers: on a payment of 100.00 with a 3.20 card fee and no tax, the net is 96.80 and your share is 72.60. If the article had two authors, each receives 36.30.

• Monthly and annual plans both count, and you earn on every renewal.
• A free member who later upgrades is credited to the article where they started paying.
• Complimentary memberships involve no payment, so there is no share.
• Only readers who start paying after the program launched are credited.

Refunds and chargebacks

If a credited payment is refunded or disputed, your share of that payment is deducted from your next payout. If a dispute is decided in the journal’s favor, the deduction is reversed. A negative balance carries forward. You are never invoiced.

When and how you’re paid

Each calendar month’s earnings are totaled on the 1st of the next month, reviewed by the journal, and sent to your bank through Stripe in the first week. There is no minimum payout. Each payout carries a Stripe transfer reference you can match to your bank statement.

Bank payouts through Stripe are set up for US-based contributors today. If you are based elsewhere, say so in your application and we’ll confirm how you would be paid before you start.

What you can and can’t see

You see every subscriber credited to you as a number, the article that earned the credit, where the reader came from, their plan and status, and every payment with the full calculation. You never see a reader’s name or email. Other contributors can’t see your subscribers or earnings.

Income beyond memberships

What AI companies pay to license the journal’s archive is split 50/50 with contributors who opt in. Read how AI licensing income is shared.

The full terms are in the payout policy.