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Policy Statement

PSU is dedicated to fostering a culture of innovation and excellence in research. This policy recognizes and incentivizes faculty members and researchers who achieve significant milestones in research and innovation, This policy underscores our commitment to encouraging high-quality research publications in reputable academic journals and the development of patents that contribute to the advancement of knowledge and societal benefit. .

Background and Justification

To promote research activities at PSU and enhance its reputation; facilitate knowledge transfer; motivate quality and impact; attract funding through high-quality research outputs and patents; and benefit individuals involved in research.

Scope and Purpose

Scope: Target audience and domains.

Purpose: To promote quality research publications by faculty members at internationally acknowledged venues and enhance PSU’s distinguished scientific status, RIC proposes financial incentives for faculty who publish in high-ranking indexed journals or produce high-quality patents.

Principles of the Policy

This policy is designed to create a fair, transparent, and ethical research environment. It emphasizes merit-based rewards, supports collaboration, and promotes compliance with ethical standards. The policy also encourages sustainability and adaptability to evolving research landscapes, provides special support for early career researchers, and recognizes a diverse range of contributions. Overall, the policy aims to enhance research quality and impact while ensuring accountability and upholding the institution's values and goals.

Definitions

RIC: The Research & Initiatives Center at Prince Sultan University.

ISI: Institute for Scientific Information (academic publishing and indexing).

Scopus: An abstracting and indexing database produced by Elsevier.

Responsibilities and Implementation Strategies

• PSU, RIC, colleges, faculty, and researchers share responsibilities for applying and administering incentives (details on the RIC website).

Incentives Rules

• For 2023, the incentive 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: Full incentive amount, distributed among PSU authors only.
• External collaborations (only one PSU author):
  • 100% of the incentive’s amount will be given if the PSU author is listed as the first author and the total number of authors is strictly less than FIVE authors..
  • 70% of the incentive’s amount will be given if the PSU author is listed as the first author and the total number of authors is FIVE authors or more.
  • 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..
  • 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 are as follows :

  Ranking/Qs	Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4
  ISI	7,000	6,000	3,000	2,000
  Scopus	6,000	5,000	2,000	1,000

• 2,000 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 Impact Factor is higher than or equal to 10) .The list is available on the RIC website.
• Annual ceiling: 55,000 SAR per faculty member.
• Scopus-only H-Index rate:

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

  The H-Index of the journals can be found on Scimago Journal & Country Rank: https://www.scimagojr.com/
  * If the journal is indexed in ISI, then it will be counted as 100
• Extra incentives for Pure Research Labs publications: +50% to deserved amount. Max per PSU author: 4,500 SAR. Considered “lab publication” if:

  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 and should be the last author.

• Order of the new incentives’ rules: The order of applying the above-mentioned rules for the deserved incentives amount are as follows:
  • Add the top 1%, 10% ISI Impact Factor extra incentives, if applicable.
  • Apply the pure research lab paper extra incentive if applicable.
  • Apply the rate of deserved incentives based on the H-Index of the journal.
  • Apply the distribution of the incentive’s amount among PSU authors.
All these calculations are automated for any publications.

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, 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.
• 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 it 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.

PSU Acknowledgement

PSU acknowledgment 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 the RIC website. https://ric.psu.edu.sa/acknowledgment-statements.php
The same rules are also available as a link on the incentives/fees request page https://ric.psu.edu.sa/apply-for-publication-fees-incentives.php
It is required to make an acknowledgment to PSU in any publication to be eligible for incentives and fees.

Ethical Considerations

It is important to respect the ethical considerations of publications. For more information, refer to the RIC website: https://ric.psu.edu.sa/research-ethics.php

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, unless otherwise specified.

Procedures for Handling Policy Violation

Any violation of this policy may be reported to the respective college of the faculty member or researcher, which will then forward the case to the Research and Initiative Center (RIC). Alternatively, it can be reported directly to the RIC. The RIC may then escalate the case to higher management for further action.

References & Appendices

• RIC website: https://ric.psu.edu.sa/
• Scimago Journal & Country Rank (H-Index): https://www.scimagojr.com/