diff --git a/dnet-pace-core/pom.xml b/dnet-pace-core/pom.xml
index 3bc7480eef..f474e56937 100644
--- a/dnet-pace-core/pom.xml
+++ b/dnet-pace-core/pom.xml
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@
 	<parent>
 		<groupId>eu.dnetlib</groupId>
 		<artifactId>dnet-dedup</artifactId>
-		<version>4.0.3-SNAPSHOT</version>
+		<version>4.0.3</version>
         <relativePath>../pom.xml</relativePath>
 	</parent>
 
diff --git a/dnet-pace-core/pom.xml.releaseBackup b/dnet-pace-core/pom.xml.releaseBackup
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..0d18645911
--- /dev/null
+++ b/dnet-pace-core/pom.xml.releaseBackup
@@ -0,0 +1,73 @@
+<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
+<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/maven-v4_0_0.xsd">
+
+    <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
+
+	<parent>
+		<groupId>eu.dnetlib</groupId>
+		<artifactId>dnet-dedup</artifactId>
+		<version>4.0.2-SNAPSHOT</version>
+        <relativePath>../pom.xml</relativePath>
+	</parent>
+
+	<artifactId>dnet-pace-core</artifactId>
+    <packaging>jar</packaging>
+
+	<dependencies>
+		<dependency>
+			<groupId>edu.cmu</groupId>
+			<artifactId>secondstring</artifactId>
+		</dependency>
+		<dependency>
+			<groupId>com.google.guava</groupId>
+			<artifactId>guava</artifactId>
+		</dependency>
+		<dependency>
+			<groupId>com.google.code.gson</groupId>
+			<artifactId>gson</artifactId>
+		</dependency>
+		<dependency>
+			<groupId>org.apache.commons</groupId>
+			<artifactId>commons-lang3</artifactId>
+		</dependency>
+		<dependency>
+			<groupId>commons-io</groupId>
+			<artifactId>commons-io</artifactId>
+		</dependency>
+
+		<dependency>
+			<groupId>org.antlr</groupId>
+			<artifactId>stringtemplate</artifactId>
+		</dependency>
+		<dependency>
+			<groupId>commons-logging</groupId>
+			<artifactId>commons-logging</artifactId>
+		</dependency>
+		<dependency>
+			<groupId>junit</groupId>
+			<artifactId>junit</artifactId>
+			<scope>test</scope>
+		</dependency>
+		<dependency>
+			<groupId>org.reflections</groupId>
+			<artifactId>reflections</artifactId>
+		</dependency>
+		<dependency>
+			<groupId>com.fasterxml.jackson.core</groupId>
+			<artifactId>jackson-databind</artifactId>
+		</dependency>
+		<dependency>
+			<groupId>org.apache.commons</groupId>
+			<artifactId>commons-math3</artifactId>
+		</dependency>
+
+		<dependency>
+			<groupId>com.jayway.jsonpath</groupId>
+			<artifactId>json-path</artifactId>
+		</dependency>
+
+
+
+	</dependencies>
+
+</project>
diff --git a/dnet-pace-core/release.properties b/dnet-pace-core/release.properties
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..d6ab05af24
--- /dev/null
+++ b/dnet-pace-core/release.properties
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+#release configuration
+#Fri Apr 24 14:37:08 CEST 2020
+scm.tagNameFormat=@{project.artifactId}-@{project.version}
+pushChanges=true
+scm.url=scm\:git\:https\://code-repo.d4science.org/D-Net/dnet-dedup.git/dnet-pace-core
+preparationGoals=clean verify
+projectVersionPolicyId=default
+remoteTagging=true
+scm.commentPrefix=[maven-release-plugin] 
+exec.snapshotReleasePluginAllowed=false
+completedPhase=scm-check-modifications