Scientific Journals

The diffusion of new telematic technologies has generated profound changes in the contractual typologies drawn up by publishers and offered to academic institutions or purchasing centres. These pose significant tax problems due to the need to demarcate between publishing products and the provision of services. Territoriality for VAT purposes makes the matter more complex in relation to "publication services", the subject of new contractual types being adopted, including "compact" contracts of a transformative nature, concerning continuous services of access/use of online databases and scientific journals and the publication of scientific articles on those databases. The novelty and uncertainty of the reference regulatory framework has led publishers and buyer networks to request multiple opinions from the financial administration through the preventive consultation procedure. This essay examines the solutions offered by administrative practice in order to address the tax problems deriving from the new contractual typologies in the field of electronic journals, in particular outlining the applicable regime for VAT purposes.

This article starts with the question of who publishes academic journals today, then briefly analyses how the range of such journals has changed during the last two decades. The article concludes that investment is necessary to support publishing initiatives of open access diamond journals carried out by members of the academic community in public universities.