Open-access journals are scientific journals that publish papers with processing fees, after the acceptance of the paper. The benefit of publishing in open access journals is that accepted papers will be made publically available, which increases their chances of being downloaded and cited. Another benefit is that the time spent to review a paper is much smaller than for classical closed-access journals. Several journals are now adopting the open-access strategy. Encouraging open-access publications of quality journal papers in Prince Sultan University certainly speeds-up the number of publications of PSU and their impacts. Thus, Prince Sultan University supports the fees of open access journals, in particular those with Q1 and Q2 ranks.

It is important to be cautious from fake and non-eligible journals & publishers, which aim only at getting money without having any scientific values. These are a few rules to follow to avoid being trapped into a fake open-access journal submissions.

Rule 1: Make sure that publisher/journal is not in the non-eligible journals & publishers list.
Rule 2: Although it is difficult to make a comprehensive list of legitimate publishers, but we can set a rule to encourage publications of open access papers only with reputed publishers, including but not limited to, IEEE, ACM, Wiley, Sage, Emerald, Springer, Elsevier, Taylor and Francis, Inderscience. Some other publishers like Hindawi and mdpi, could be considered with some more restrictions like only for their Q1 and Q2 ranked journals because some of their journals could be questionable.
Rule 3: Another rule to set is that Q3-Q4 open-access journals should be approved by the College and CRC before agreeing to pay their fees by the University.
Rule 4: Fees are paid for journals that are exclusively open access. If the journal provides both opportunities of free closed-access or paid open-access (i.e., Hybrid), then the free closed-access mode should be adopted.

In case you have a doubt with any journal whether it will be supported by PSU or not, please contact your College Research Director to ask in advance.

A. INCENTIVES RULES

For the year of 2023-2025, the incentives amount per Quartile remains as it is.

To further encourage the local collaboration of two or more PSU authors, the full incentive’s amount will be given. However, in the case of external collaboration where only ONE PSU author has contributed to the published work, a percentage of the incentive’s amount will be given as illustrated below:

Local PSU Collaborations:

The full incentive's amount will be given and distributed only among PSU authors.

External Collaborations:

In case of external collaboration where only ONE PSU author has contributed to the published paper, a percentage is given as follows:

1. 100% of the incentive’s amount will be given, if PSU author is listed as the first author and the total number of authors is strictly less than FIVE authors.

2. 70% of the incentive’s amount will be given, if PSU author is listed as the first author and the total number of authors is FIVE authors or more.

3. 35% of the incentive’s amount will be given, if the PSU author is not listed as the first author and the total number of authors is strictly less than FIVE authors.

4. 20% of the incentive’s amount will be given, if the PSU author is not listed as the first author and the total number of authors is FIVE authors or more.

The incentives scale for ISI and SCOPUS for 2023-2025 are as follows:

Ranking/Qs	Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4
ISI	7000	6000	3000	2000
SCOPUS	6000	5000	2000	1000
2000 SAR incentives are added for the top 1% journals (ISI Impact Factor is higher than or equal to 30) and 1000 SAR for the top 10% (ISI Imapact Factor higher than or equal to 10) (list available on the RIC website)
The ceiling of incentives is 55,000 SAR per faculty member

Furthermore, the incentive amounts of Scopus-only publications will be subject to a rate based on the H-Index of the journal as illustrated in this table.

H-Index	% of Incentives*
0-10	79%
11-20	82%
21-30	86%
31-40	90%
41-49	95%
50 and above	100%

The H-Index of the journals can be found on Scimago Journal & Country Rank

* If the journal is indexed in ISI, then it will be counted as 100%.

Extra incentives on Pure Research Labs publications

To encourage publications produced within the PSU research labs, we allocate 50% extra amount to be added to the deserved incentives based on current bylaws for any publication being produced by the members of a research lab. The maximum incentive amount received by any PSU author does not exceed 4,500 SAR, regardless of the number of authors.

A publication is considered as being produced by a research lab, if it satisfies all the three conditions as the following:*

• It has at least two researchers affiliated with the research lab, or PSU faculty members.

• An author of the research lab/PSU is the first author.

• It has a maximum of one co-author outside PSU.
  *Latest update: 20 January 2025. Updates will be applied starting with batch 2025-01

Order of the new incentives’ rules:

The order of applying the above-mentioned rules for the deserved incentives amount are as follows:

1. Add the top 1%, 10% ISI Impact Factor extra incentives, if applicable.

2. Apply the pure research lab paper extra incentive if applicable.

3. Apply the rate of deserved incentives based on the H-Index of the journal.

4. Apply the distribution of the incentive’s amount among PSU authors.

All these calculations are automated for any publications.

B. PUBLICATION FEES RULES

Regarding the payment of publication fees, the University strives to process all the requests as soon as possible. We would like to attract the attention of the faculty members that for the refund of publication fees in 2023-2025, it is important to respect the following guidelines:

• Starting from 2023, each paper must cite at least 3-4 relevant PSU research papers, not including authors’ self-citation to improve the citation records of Prince Sultan University. Click here to see how you can look for relevant papers

• Publications Fees are granted for publications with at least 40% of PSU authors.

• The publication fees will be fully paid for papers ranked in all QS ranking whether in ISI or SCOPUS except SCOPUS Q4.

• The publication fees in the invoice must be the same as the publication fees declared by the open-access journal on its website. In case article processing charges are hidden, the refund will not be approved, even if an invoice is shown.

• The refund will be made to the PSU author, who paid the publication fees. If the receipt of the publication fee is not at the name of a PSU author, the refund will not be approved. In case of a major need for the fees to be paid by another author, you must contact RIC in advance with the reason for prior approval.

• The publication fee invoice must be issued by the same journal/publisher where the article is accepted. Third-party payments of publication fees are not allowed and will not be refunded.

• PSU can secure the publication fees per paper up to 9000 SAR and any extra amount above that will not be considered.

• For payment in other currencies, it is necessary to add the bank statement that shows the exact amount withdrawn from the account in Saudi Riyal.

• The publication fees of extra pages are supported for the top 10% journals and IEEE Transactions. The maximum publication fee ceiling shall not be exceeded.

• We would like to encourage faculty members to consider highly reputed publishers and journals to help to promote the quality and impact of the research at PSU.

• The ceiling of publication fees is 50,000 SAR per faculty member.

After reaching the ceiling of 50,000 SAR, it is possible to extend it to 60,000 SAR if satisfies one of the following:

• If the faculty member secures the funding of two publication fees from a collaborator, we give him/her a matching of one extra publication fee paid by PSU.

• If the faculty member publishes three papers in closed-access journals with no publication fees, we give him/her a matching of one extra publication fee paid by PSU.

Regarding the rule of the requirement of citing 3-4 relevant publications in each paper ,his rule aims at increasing the exposure of PSU research work and increasing the total number of PSU citations . It is important to note:

• The rule will be applied on papers submitted on or after Jan 04 , 2023.

• The rule mentioned citing RELEVANT papers . If no PSU publication is related to the paper to be submitted , the PSU authors do not need to cite the PSU papers.

• We urge faculty members to cooperate in raising PSU citations and impact.

Regarding the 40 % of PSU faculty members required to be eligible for publication fees , the following applies:

• The rule will be applied on papers submitted on or after Jan 04 , 2023.

• In the case of three authors only , it is allowed to have one PSU author involved and receive the publication fees as an exception.

• While we keep encouraging collaboration , we urge faculty members to increase the ratio of PURE PSU PUBLICATIONS according to the criteria set by RIC.

C. PSU ACKNOWLEDGMENT

PSU acknowledgement is part of recognizing the efforts made by PSU in funding the research either with fees, incentives or seed grants.

Please find the suggested statements for different cases of publications at RIC website.

It is required to make an acknowledgment to PSU in any publication to be eligible for incentives and fees.

D. ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS

It is important to respect the ethical considerations of publications. For more information, refere to research ethics at RIC website

E. FEES AND INCENTIVES ELIGIBILITY

Admin staff can apply for fees and incentives at maximum 30% of the ceilings of faculty members.

All other rules approved in 2022 remain the same for 2023-2025, unless otherwise specified.

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When a faculty member has a paper published ONLINE in an open access journal, he applies for a refund of the publication incentives (and fees if any). The process for receiving the publication fees and incentives is the same.

The following process will occur monthly. In the last week of every month, RIC sends a reminder to all faculty members to submit their new publications for receiving incentives and publication fees.

In the last day of the month, RIC processes all the requests and submits them to the office of the vice-rector of financial affairs within one week.

The process is presented below, for the faculty member, the College Research Director, and RIC.

FACULTY MEMBER ROLE

For every new publication, perform the following actions:

1. If your paper was accepted in 2023–2025, Add your publications details in RIC Services Portal

Note: you will be able to fill up the form after logging in.

This is needed for statistical purposes. RIC verifies that there is one input of the paper in this dataset before processing the request. If there is no entry, the processing of the request for the corresponding paper will be delayed until the data is entered.

Also, only one PSU author should enter the information of the paper in this form.

2. Prepare all required evidences including:

   1. The first page of your published journal publication. It must show the authors names, title of the published paper, and the journal title.

   2. The invoice of the publication fees, only for the author who paid the publication fees.

      The invoice must be made at the name of the authors receiving the refund.

   You can find a sample of requested evidence that must be included in every Publication fee request. download sample

3. Put all these documents into on PDF file.

4. Apply for the incentives/fees using RIC Services portal

   Fill in the form and upload the PDF file.

Only one PSU author can claim for publication fees. The concerned author must submit an invoice of the publication fees with his name, without which publication fees cannot be refunded.

RIC ROLE

1. Verify all information in incentives lists are correct.

2. Compile and combine all lists from the different colleges.

3. Send a hardcopy of the list of requests to College Research Directors and Deans to approve and sign.

4. Send a hardcopy of the list of requests to College Deans to approve and sign.

5. Send the requests to PSU Vice Rector of Financial Affairs Office.

6. Archive all sent data to be used later.

COLLEGE RESEARCH DIRECTOR ROLE

1. Check and verify that all information of incentives and publication fees for the respective college are correct.

2. Sign and approve the requests of the respective college by the College Research Director and Dean.