Frequently Asked Questions

Most changes and updates to your subscriptions can be done by signing in to this subscription management page.  This account management page allows you to:

• Update your mailing address
• Change your payment method
• Pause or cancel your subscription
• Renew your subscription
• Manage gift subscriptions
• See your account number(s)
• Change the email address associated with your subscription(s)

For assistance, please email us or call us at 800-333-1199.

If you purchased your subscription online, your account number is already present in your account, and your subscription activated instantly.  If you purchased by phone or by mail, you can activate your subscription online by adding your account number to your online account.  Here's how:

Sign in to ScientificAmerican.com

Click My Account, select My Subscriptions

Click "Don't see all your subscriptions?"

Enter your account number in the field that pops up.

Click ADD.

Gift subscriptions are activated with either an account number or with a gift code, depending on how the subscription was purchased.  When a gift subscription is purchased, an automated email to the gift recipient is sent out with the information needed to activate online access.  This email can sometimes be found in the recipient's spam folder, but sometimes the gift giver doesn't have the recipient's most current email address.  If you didn't receive a gift subscription email, please email us for help.
 

Print subscribers can find their account numbers on the address label of their issues, highlighted below. It is numeric only, five to eight digits long, and does not include any letters, symbols, or leading zeroes. Therefore, if your mailing label shows SCA0001234567/0#, your account number is 1234567.  Account number highlighted in sample label below.



If you do not have an issue handy, or if you are a digital-only subscriber, you can always email us or call us at 800-333-1199 for your account number.

If you received your account number in an email from Scientific_American@orders.buysub.com, your account number appears in the email with zeroes before your actual number. Please do not include these zeroes with your account number when activating your account online. Your account number is 5 to 8 digits long with no zeroes at the front.

You can also sign into this subscription management page to see your account number(s).

You can cancel your subscription at any time.  Log in to this subscription management page to cancel online, you can also email us or call us at 800-333-1199 during normal business hours (CMT).

It's easy to buy a gift subscription!  Simply click the "This is a gift" box under the subscription in your shopping cart. This opens the box seen below, where you can enter the gift recipient's information.

You can also call us to purchase gift subscriptions by phone at 800-333-1199.

Of course you can!  Just call us at 800-333-1199 to purchase a subscription for yourself or as a gift.  International customers can call 001-1-515-248-7684.  Once purchased, you can use your account number to activate your digital access.  Click here for instructions.

Email us if you have any questions!

Scientific American does not offer lifetime subscriptions.  Every subscription sold on our website is a one-year subscription. 

All subscriptions sold on our website will automatically renew once a year until you wish to cancel.  To cancel or pause a subscription yourself online, please sign into this subscription management page.  You can also call us at 800-333-1199 during normal business hours (CMT), or email us at any time to stop renewals or to cancel a subscription.
 

We have several partners that republish our content in other languages.  They are published and sold independently of Scientific American, so subscriptions and issues must be purchased through our partners directly.  Please click here to see the list of international editions, with links to their websites.

Institutional Scientific American print subscriptions and Institutional License digital subscriptions are sold separately.

Call us at 800-333-1199 for institutional print pricing and to purchase institutional print subscriptions by phone.  Please note, no digital access is included with institutional print subscriptions.

Institutional digital Licenses are available from Springer Nature.  Please visit the Springer Nature page for librarians, or this FAQ for more information about the Institutional License. 

All subscriptions offered for sale on ScientificAmerican.com are for individual subscribers only, and are not offered to institutions.  Subscriptions sold on our website do not support institutional use, and purchasing a personal subscription for institutional use is a violation of our Terms of Use.

No problem!  Call us at 800-333-1199 during normal business hours (CMT), or email us anytime if you need more information.