Administrative Procedure for the Payment and
Publication of Scientific Papers
Publication stages for scientific papers
The first step for the publication of a scientific paper consists in SUBMITTING the Pre-Print Version to the Publisher’s approval. This is the unrevised original version of the paper.
The paper is subject to Peer Review, after which it might be ACCEPTED. At this point it is said to be in its Post-Print Version, where the text corresponds to that which will be published, but it does not contain the journal’s logo or layout. Once the article is accepted, the publisher may make an EARLY ACCESS version of the paper available on its website prior to publication.
After the paper has been accepted and the Author Publishing Agreement (APA) has been signed, it is published in the journal, usually after payment of the Article Publishing Charge (APC). The APA is signed through a publisher’s platform, and this generates an automatic invoice. The paper is now in its Editorial Version, with a favourable Peer Review, and the file contains the journal’s logo and final layout, as present in the publisher’s webpage.
Publication procedures
Scientific papers may be published in one of two ways:
- Transformative Agreements with CARE-CRUI and the publishers
- Direct Entrustment
1. Transformative Agreements with CARE-CRUI
The Coordinating Group for Access to Electronic Resources of CRUI (CARE-CRUI) manages agreements with major publishers of scientific articles, to which GSSI can subscribe. Some of these agreements are transformative, characterised by two outcomes: access to the electronic journals included in the package and publication of Open Access scientific articles through a more or less limited voucher system.
GSSI has subscribed to Transformative Agreements with ACM, AIP, CUP, IEEE, IOP, Springer, Wiley and Elsevier-Science Direct.
The publication of papers through a Transformative Agreement may be subject to the Article Approval System (AAS), managed by Dr Matilda Clarkson, who is in charge of Open Access for CARE-CRUI. Direct approval without intermediaries (ACM) is also possible.
The required copyright licence is usually CC-BY (4.0 International).
Publication may involve additional costs, such as those pertaining to excess pages (Overlength Page Cost, OPC) or colour images (Author Colour Artwork, ACA) (IEEE and Springer), which are managed by direct entrustment.
2. Direct Entrustment – Legislative Decree 36/2023
Direct Entrustment is governed by Legislative Decree 36/2023, Tender Regulations, and it requires some compulsory steps. The procedure must be completed within a two-month period, but sometimes the publisher – especially if it is a foreign one – may request certain documents that require an extension of the deadline. For this reason, the person in charge of publications, Dr Matilda Clarkson, should be contacted as soon as the paper is accepted.
In no circumstances should the Author Publishing Agreement (APA) – usually managed through the publisher’s online platform – be signed, because doing so generates an automatic invoice.
The APA will be signed on completion of the procedure of direct entrustment and of payment of the invoice requested by RUP.
Should there be any additional costs (OPC or ACA) for Transformative Agreements, the publisher will send an email link to complete the invoice through its platform. In no circumstances should such invoice be completed; rather, it should be sent to the publications manager as soon as possible, so that the procedures of Direct Entrustment may begin.
In either case, you will be requested to fill in the Order Request signed by the professor/person in charge of the project, which will be signed for acceptance by the General Director. The Order should contain a brief description of the article: title, journal, publisher and DOI (where applicable), in addition to the amount and – if relevant – the project that will bear the cost and – if known – the project’s CUP.
I remind you that GSSI falls within the purview of the Public Administration, and thus invoices can only be issued on completion of the entrustment procedure, pursuant to Legislative Decree 36/2003.
Submission Fee – Social Sciences
The publication of articles in the area of Social Sciences presents a special case, since many publishers request a SUBMISSION FEE when articles are submitted to a journal.
The Submission Fee payment procedure must be evaluated case by case.
As soon as you find out that the journal requires a Submission Fee, contact Dr Matilda Clarkson, who, as the person in charge, will evaluate whether the Fee will be paid through Direct Entrustment or as a reimbursement through Petty Cash funds.
For information please contact:
Library Staff: Matilda M. Clarkson
Office: First floor on Rectorate Bldg and ground floor ex-ISEF Bldg.
email: library@gssi.it – matilda.clarkson@gssi.it
Tel.: +39 0862 4280 259, +39 335 6565033