Why Doesn’t SciTube Include Pricing in Its Initial Research Outreach Emails?

If you have received an email from SciTube about your research, you may have noticed that our first message usually focuses on your work rather than the cost of our service.

There is a simple reason for that.

Our first conversation is about the research, not about selling you a video.

SciTube is a paid professional science communication service. We have never tried to hide that, and our pricing is openly available on our website through our Animate Your Research page.

But before we start talking about commissioning an animation, there is a more important question to answer.

Should we actually be working together in the first place?

We approach researchers because of their research

Our outreach starts with the science.

We identify published research that we think could benefit from being communicated to a wider audience, particularly people who may never read the original academic paper.

That does not mean every researcher we contact automatically becomes a suitable SciTube project.

Before anything progresses, we want to understand the work properly.

Is the research credible?

Has it been reviewed and published through a legitimate academic journal?

Is there an interesting story that can be communicated visually?

Could animation genuinely help a wider audience understand it?

Most importantly, does the researcher themselves believe there is value in communicating their work beyond their immediate academic community?

We have no interest in producing an animation simply because somebody can afford one.

If a researcher sees no reason for their work to reach patients, students, policymakers, charities, industry or the wider public, then SciTube may simply not be the right fit.

Why not just put the price in the first email?

Because without context, a price tells you very little.

A researcher receiving an introductory email may know almost nothing about SciTube, how our animations are produced, the scientific editorial work involved, how projects are disseminated, or why visual communication might be useful for their particular research.

Putting a price at the top of that conversation turns everything into a purchasing decision before either side has established whether there is something worth purchasing.

We would rather talk about the problem first.

Who currently understands the research?

Who else could benefit from understanding it?

What makes the study difficult to communicate?

What could animation show that a paper, figure or talking-head video cannot?

What would success actually look like?

If, after that discussion, everyone agrees that SciTube could add value, then cost becomes a perfectly reasonable part of the conversation.

If not, there is no reason to take things any further.

There are no surprise charges

This is important.

SciTube does not produce or publish somebody’s work and then reveal that there is a fee.

A researcher does not become financially committed simply by replying to one of our emails or having an introductory conversation with us.

No production begins until the project, service and cost have been discussed and agreed.

If the researcher decides not to proceed, nothing proceeds.

If we decide that the research is not a good fit for SciTube, the same applies.

There is no obligation created by having a conversation.

Our pricing is public

We are also very open about what SciTube costs.

Researchers do not have to speak to a salesperson to discover whether SciTube is a paid service or to get an idea of our pricing.

Our animation pricing is publicly available through the Animate Your Research section of the SciTube website.

We think that is important.

There is a difference between not putting a price into an introductory research email and hiding the price of a service.

We do the former.

We do not do the latter.

Why we prefer a research-led conversation

Science communication works best when there is a genuine reason for doing it.

A good animation should solve a communication problem.

Perhaps an important biological mechanism is almost impossible to explain with a static figure.

Perhaps a publicly funded project needs a better way of showing taxpayers what their money helped achieve.

Perhaps a publisher wants an accessible route into a particularly important paper.

Perhaps a research department wants its work to reach patients, policymakers, students or other disciplines.

Those are interesting conversations.

Starting with the research also allows us to determine whether animation is actually the right solution.

Sometimes it will be.

Sometimes it will not.

That is much more useful than simply sending somebody a price list and asking whether they want to buy something.

Science communication has a cost

Professional science communication requires people and expertise.

Our team has to understand the research, identify the central narrative, write and scientifically review the script, plan the visual story, design the scenes, animate them, produce the finished film and prepare the work for publication and dissemination.

The aim is to take something that may have taken years to research and make it understandable to somebody outside the field in only a few minutes, without losing what makes the science important.

That takes skilled people and real time. And, whether an organisation is for-profit or nonprofit, the people doing that work still need to be paid.

So yes, SciTube has a cost.

But we would rather establish that the work is worth doing before asking anybody to spend money on it.

Who does SciTube want to work with?

We work with individual researchers, research groups, university departments, publishers, societies and other organisations that believe important science should travel beyond the people who already understand it.

We particularly value working with people who recognise that publication and communication are not the same thing.

Publishing research makes it available.

Communication helps people understand why it matters.

For publicly funded research, that distinction can be particularly important. If we want taxpayers to continue supporting investment in science, we need to give them meaningful opportunities to understand what that investment is achieving.

That is the conversation we would much rather start with.

The cost can come afterwards.

Frequently asked questions

Is SciTube a paid service?

Yes. SciTube is a professional science communication service and our animation projects are paid.

Why doesn’t SciTube mention the price in its initial email?

Because our initial outreach is research-led rather than cost-led. We first want to establish whether the research is suitable for wider communication and whether SciTube is genuinely the right fit.

Is SciTube trying to hide the cost?

No. Our pricing is publicly available on our website. Researchers can view it without having an introductory call with us.

When will the cost be discussed?

Before any production work begins. The project scope, service and cost are discussed and agreed before a researcher makes any commitment.

Am I committed to anything if I speak with SciTube?

No. An introductory conversation carries no obligation to proceed.

Does SciTube work with anybody who can pay?

No. We approach researchers because we believe their work may be suitable for wider science communication. Scientific credibility, suitability for animation and a genuine interest in reaching wider audiences all matter to us.

Does SciTube publish work before discussing payment?

No. SciTube does not produce or publish a research animation and then surprise the researcher with a charge. Scope and cost are agreed beforehand.

The simplest way to put it

We do not want our first question to a researcher to be:

“Can you afford this?”

We would rather start with:

“Is this research worth communicating, who needs to understand it, and can we genuinely help?”

If the answer is yes, we can talk about the practicalities, including price.

If the answer is no, there is no project to sell.

That is how we believe professional science communication should work.

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