Publication reprint orders placed on sponsored accounts must be timed carefully. It is customary to place orders for journal reprints close to the termination date of a sponsored project. Although this makes perfect sense given the timing of the completion of the project work, it causes significant difficulty from a procurement/payment perspective. Due to the extended lead times required by many publications, it is common for delivery of reprints to take from 6 months to 1 year from the order date. Since most sponsors require a final financial close-out and reporting within 30 - 90 days of the project term date, reprint purchase orders cannot be kept active long enough to receive the order. The money is then lost from the project account and the reprints must be funded from another source or the order canceled. If you are planning to place such an order on an account scheduled to terminate within six months and there is no future support awarded, you should contact your Grant Specialist to discuss possible alternatives for protecting your project funds.
