Publishing regulations

The principles of operation of the University of Gdańsk Publishing House and publications in the University of Gdańsk Publishing House are specified in the Regulations of the University of Gdańsk Publishing House, adopted by the Senate of the University of Gdańsk on July 8, 2024. The Regulations are an annex to the resolution of the Senate of the University of Gdańsk No. 52/21, amended by the Senate resolution No. 35/24.  [link to the resolution]

§ 1Publishing Organization

1. The University of Gdańsk Publishing House, hereinafter referred to as the Publishing House, handles the publishing process of academic textbooks, scientific and popular science monographs, journals and documentary and informational publications in all fields of knowledge covered by the research and teaching activities of the University of Gdańsk, as well as occasional publications
2. The substantive supervision of the Publishing House is exercised by the Vice-Rector responsible for Science
3. The publishing house is managed by a Director who is employed by the Rector
4. The Publishing House houses the Printing Department and the University Bookstore
5. The publishing house keeps a register of its own publications

§ 2Publishing Plan

1. Individual organizational units of the University and authors submit publications for publication by the Publishing House by the end of February each year
2. The Director has the right to also accept publications not reported in the publishing plan

§ 3Publishing Council

1. The competences of the Publishing Council include:
2. opinion on annual publishing plans;
3. opinion on the Director’s reports on the activities of the Publishing House;
4. shaping publishing policy and establishing strategic directions of the Publishing House’s activities
5. The Publishing Council is appointed by the Rector for the term of office of the University of Gdańsk authorities
   The Council consists of a representative of each faculty designated by the dean, who holds at least a doctoral degree
6. The Publishing Council elects a chairman from among its members at its first meeting

§ 4Editorial College

1. The Editorial Board, composed of at least 3 people, is appointed by the Rector from among academic teachers employed at the University of Gdańsk with outstanding publication achievements
2. The work of the College is managed by the Director
3. The task of the College is:
   1. ensuring that high publishing standards are achieved and ensuring the efficient implementation of the Publishing House’s strategy;
   2. substantive evaluation of publications submitted to the Publishing House;
   3. conducting the process of qualifying a work for release;
   4. making decisions on co-financing the publication of academic textbooks and monographs constituting habilitation dissertations

§ 5The process of qualifying a work for publication

1. The basis for assessing the substantive content of a work submitted for publication is a publishing review, prepared by at least one reviewer. Every publication is subject to review
2. Before deciding to submit a work for review, the work is checked by the Publishing House using an anti-plagiarism system
3. The Editorial Board may decide not to accept a book for publication and not to refer it for review in the event of justified doubts regarding the substantive quality, reliability of the work or violation of the principles of publication ethics
4. The Publishing House submits work submitted by the author or editor of a collective volume, respectively, for scientific review to specialists in a given scientific discipline who are not employed by the university where the author or editor is employed, respectively. The reviewer cannot be a person in relation to whom there are justified doubts as to his or her impartiality.
5. The selection of the reviewer or reviewers is made by the Editorial Board
   The name of the reviewer is not disclosed to the authors or scientific editors of the book during the review process, and upon receipt of the review, it is disclosed subject to the reviewer’s consent
6. After receiving the review, it is forwarded to the author or editor of the work, respectively, with a preliminary decision on whether to accept or refuse the work for printing. The author or editor responds comprehensively to the review and resubmits his response, together with the revised work, to the Publishing House. In response to the review, the author addresses all the reviewer’s comments in points, explaining whether and how he took them into account, and if he decided to skip some of them, he should explain why
7. The Editorial Board analyzes the author’s response to the review and makes the final decision to:
   1. accepting a paper for printing;
   2. refusal to accept the work for printing with written justification;
   3. referring the work for re-review
8. A manuscript containing some or all of the results of defended doctoral dissertations may only be published under the name of the author of the dissertation, in the form of a monograph or a chapter in a collective work edited by

§ 6Financing

1. The publishing house develops a material and financial plan for a given financial year. It presents it for approval to the vice-rector responsible for science
2. The publication of academic textbooks and monographs intended to constitute a habilitation thesis or containing achievements constituting the basis for a habilitation procedure with a volume of up to 10 publishing sheets may be financed within the Publishing House’s budget provided that they are previously reported in the publishing plan for a given year referred to in § 2, and the Publishing House may co-finance a maximum of 2 habilitation theses from a given Faculty and 6 textbooks from all faculties in total annually
   In the case of textbooks by the same authors, the Publishing House may subsidize the publication of a new textbook at most once every 3 years (which does not apply to reprints of previously published textbooks)
3. The decision on financing is made each time by the Editorial Board. The cost of oversized sheets and overstandard equipment (e.g. color illustrations, hardcover) and other types of publications are financed from the funds indicated by the organizational units reporting the publication or by the authors
4. The basis for deciding whether to accept a publication for printing is, in addition to a positive editorial review, the estimates of its publication
5. In the case of a publication for which there is high demand, the Director, after receiving the opinion of the Editorial Board, may decide to finance the reprint from the Publishing House
6. In addition to textbooks and habilitation theses, the Publishing House may co-finance or fully finance the publication of books that are profitable for the Publishing House due to the great interest in the topic from readers and books written by authors on request for the Publishing House. The decision on this matter is made by the Publishing House Director in consultation with the Vice-Rector responsible for Science

§ 7Organization of the publishing process

1. The Publishing Director is responsible for the publishing process
2. The Director applies for ISBN and ISSN numbers
3. After accepting the work for printing, the Director submits the printout for editorial development
4. The publishing house may outsource all work related to the publishing process, regardless of the type of publication, to other entities and persons
5. The basic circulation for individual groups of publications is assumed to be:
   1. monographs intended to constitute habilitation dissertations or containing achievements constituting the basis of habilitation proceedings – 140 copies;
   2. other monographs – 200 copies;
   3. textbooks – maximum 1/2 of the number of students for whom a textbook will be recommended in the next 3 years
   4. In special cases, the circulation amount may change
6. The date of publication of the book – depending on the volume of the book, the quality of its preparation by the author and the degree of complexity, is individually determined for each book after assessing the material submitted to the Publishing House and is specified in the authorship agreement, but may be extended for reasons attributable to the authors
7. The rules for publishing a book are specified in the authorship agreement, with the Publishing House reserving the right to final decisions regarding typographic solutions, cover design and being responsible for editorial corrections. The Publishing House does not accept covers designed by authors

§ 8Printing Department

1. The publishing house is managed by the Printing Department, which provides printing services for all types of materials for the entire University of Gdańsk and may provide services to external entities
2. The Head of the Printing Department is employed by the Chancellor at the request of the Publishing Director
3. The Printing Plant conducts financial management separate from the Publishing House

§ 9University Bookstore

1. The publishing house is managed by the University Bookstore, where all the publishing house’s books and books from other publishing houses are distributed in accordance with the needs of academics and students, as well as promotional gadgets of the University of Gdańsk
2. The bookstore has a café run by an external entity specializing in this type of services, and the principles of the café’s operation are regulated by a separate agreement
3. The bookstore may host author meetings, promotional events, and cultural and scientific events
4. The Head of the University Bookstore is employed by the Chancellor at the request of the Publishing Director
5. The University Bookstore runs a financial management system separate from the Publishing House

§ 10Promotion and Distribution

1. 1. The Publishing House publishes information about new releases in specialist periodicals, on its own website and on selected available websites. The Publishing House sends review copies of new releases to the editorial offices of specialist magazines, including those indicated by the authors, as well as to the press, radio and television. The Publishing House sends signal copies of new releases to bookstores that regularly cooperate with the Publishing House.
   2. The publishing house sends mandatory copies to libraries, including 2 copies to the University of Gdańsk Library
   3. In addition to the traditional paper version, the Publishing House may distribute its publications in electronic version (in the form of an e-book) on digital platforms of specialized companies
   4. Publications no longer available in paper version and not included in electronic distribution in the form of a paid e-book are transferred by the Publishing House in electronic version to the repository of the University of Gdańsk Library, where they are made available to external users under the CC

license

1. The publishing house participates in national book fairs, co-organizes book promotions and presents publications at conferences and events thematically related to the issues of published books, as well as, depending on the needs, at other universities and scientific institutions. The publishing house publishes information about promotions and accompanying events in advance on its website
2. The publishing house sells books through wholesalers, bookstores operating in UG facilities and other bookstores, as well as its own online bookstore. The publishing house also sells to individual customers
3. The detailed procedures for setting prices, discounts and rebates are regulated by a separate order of the Rector
4. The publishing house organizes an annual competition for the best scientific and teaching book, as well as for the best book presenting the results of a doctoral thesis. The rules for submitting publications and their evaluation are specified in the competition rules
5. The Publishing House, with the authors’ consent, may make available online (on the Publishing House’s website, in a special tab) articles by academics contained in collective publications for internal use within the University – for employees, doctoral students and students for download for a fee in PDF file format
6. The Director of the Publishing House, in consultation with the Vice-Rector responsible for Science, may decide to liquidate outstanding editions of books that have been published for at least 4 years if these items do not sell

§ 11Copyright Agreements and Fees

1. The Director signs an agreement with the author to transfer copyright or a license agreement before submitting the work for review. The publishing house may terminate such an agreement in the event of a negative review or refusal to accept the work for publication by the Editorial Board.
2. The authorship agreement contains a provision regarding the amount of the fee that is payable to authors or scientific editors for publishing books (with the exception of monographs intended to constitute a habilitation thesis or containing achievements constituting the basis for habilitation proceedings with a circulation of 140 copies, which were co-financed by the Publishing House)
3. The author’s agreement authorizes the Publishing House to make reprints without the author’s consent, but before making a reprint, the Publishing House is obliged to consult the author on the news contained in the publication of the content. If, as a result of the consultation, it turns out that the content of the work requires updating, the Publishing House will propose a second updated edition to the authors.
4. The amount of the fee and the procedure for its payment are regulated by a separate order of the Rector

§ 12Activity Report

By the end of March each year, the Director of the Publishing House submits a report to the Senate on the activities of the Publishing House for the previous year