diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 7568bd40..4f691835 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@
 
 # Package Files #
 .flattened-pom.xml
+release-pom.xml
 *.releaseBackup
 *.jar
 *.war
diff --git a/release-pom.xml b/release-pom.xml
deleted file mode 100644
index f2f0b644..00000000
--- a/release-pom.xml
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,277 +0,0 @@
-<?xml version="1.0"?>
-<project xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 https://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd" xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0"
-    xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
-  <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
-  <groupId>io.gdcc</groupId>
-  <artifactId>xoai</artifactId>
-  <version>5.0.0-RC1</version>
-  <packaging>pom</packaging>
-  <name>XOAI : OAI-PMH Java Toolkit</name>
-  <description>An OAI-PMH data and/or service provider implementation, integration ready for your service.</description>
-  <url>https://github.com/gdcc/xoai</url>
-  <organization>
-    <name>Global Dataverse Community Consortium</name>
-    <url>https://dataversecommunity.global</url>
-  </organization>
-  <licenses>
-    <license>
-      <name>DuraSpace BSD License</name>
-      <url>https://raw.github.com/DSpace/DSpace/master/LICENSE</url>
-      <distribution>repo</distribution>
-      <comments>A BSD 3-Clause license for the DSpace codebase.</comments>
-    </license>
-  </licenses>
-  <developers>
-    <developer>
-      <name>Oliver Bertuch</name>
-      <url>https://github.com/poikilotherm</url>
-    </developer>
-    <developer>
-      <name>DSpace @ Lyncode</name>
-      <email>dspace@lyncode.com</email>
-      <organization>Lyncode</organization>
-      <organizationUrl>http://www.lyncode.com</organizationUrl>
-    </developer>
-  </developers>
-  <modules>
-    <module>xoai-common</module>
-    <module>xoai-data-provider</module>
-    <module>xoai-service-provider</module>
-    <module>xoai-xmlio</module>
-    <module>report</module>
-  </modules>
-  <scm>
-    <connection>scm:git:git@github.com:gdcc/xoai.git</connection>
-    <developerConnection>scm:git:git@github.com:gdcc/xoai.git</developerConnection>
-    <url>git@github.com:gdcc/xoai.git</url>
-  </scm>
-  <issueManagement>
-    <system>GitHub Issues</system>
-    <url>https://github.com/gdcc/xoai/issues</url>
-  </issueManagement>
-  <ciManagement>
-    <system>github</system>
-    <url>https://github.com/gdcc/xoai/actions</url>
-    <notifiers>
-      <notifier>
-        <address>dataversebot@gdcc.io</address>
-      </notifier>
-    </notifiers>
-  </ciManagement>
-  <distributionManagement>
-    <repository>
-      <id>ossrh</id>
-      <url>https://s01.oss.sonatype.org/service/local/staging/deploy/maven2/</url>
-    </repository>
-    <snapshotRepository>
-      <id>ossrh</id>
-      <url>https://s01.oss.sonatype.org/content/repositories/snapshots</url>
-    </snapshotRepository>
-  </distributionManagement>
-  <properties>
-    <pomchecker-maven-plugin.version>1.2.0</pomchecker-maven-plugin.version>
-    <maven-gpg-plugin.version>3.0.1</maven-gpg-plugin.version>
-    <skipUT>false</skipUT>
-    <slf4j.version>1.7.36</slf4j.version>
-    <maven-jar-plugin.version>3.2.2</maven-jar-plugin.version>
-    <maven-compiler-plugin.version>3.10.1</maven-compiler-plugin.version>
-    <woodstox.version>6.2.8</woodstox.version>
-    <jakarta.jaxb-impl.version>2.3.6</jakarta.jaxb-impl.version>
-    <jdk.version>11</jdk.version>
-    <compilerArgument></compilerArgument>
-    <maven-dependency-plugin.version>3.3.0</maven-dependency-plugin.version>
-    <dependency-check-maven.version>7.1.1</dependency-check-maven.version>
-    <project.region>US</project.region>
-    <project.language>en</project.language>
-    <jakarta.jaxb.version>2.3.3</jakarta.jaxb.version>
-    <project.timezone>UTC</project.timezone>
-    <javadoc.lint>none</javadoc.lint>
-    <junit.jupiter.version>5.8.2</junit.jupiter.version>
-    <maven-assembly-plugin.version>3.3.0</maven-assembly-plugin.version>
-    <maven-plugin-plugin.version>3.6.4</maven-plugin-plugin.version>
-    <nexus-staging-plugin.version>1.6.13</nexus-staging-plugin.version>
-    <maven-javadoc-plugin.version>3.4.0</maven-javadoc-plugin.version>
-    <xmlunit.version>2.9.0</xmlunit.version>
-    <junit.version>4.13.2</junit.version>
-    <junit.vintage.version>5.8.2</junit.vintage.version>
-    <jacoco.version>0.8.8</jacoco.version>
-    <revision>5.0.0-SNAPSHOT</revision>
-    <maven-enforcer-plugin.version>3.1.0</maven-enforcer-plugin.version>
-    <maven-surefire-plugin.version>3.0.0-M7</maven-surefire-plugin.version>
-    <skipIT>false</skipIT>
-    <stax2.api.version>4.2.1</stax2.api.version>
-    <maven-source-plugin.version>3.2.1</maven-source-plugin.version>
-    <maven-release-plugin.version>3.0.0-M6</maven-release-plugin.version>
-    <hamcrest.version>2.2</hamcrest.version>
-    <maven-plugin-api.version>3.8.2</maven-plugin-api.version>
-    <project.build.sourceEncoding>UTF-8</project.build.sourceEncoding>
-    <maven-failsafe-plugin.version>3.0.0-M7</maven-failsafe-plugin.version>
-    <spotless.version>2.22.8</spotless.version>
-    <maven-plugin-annotations.version>3.6.4</maven-plugin-annotations.version>
-    <checkstyle-maven-plugin.version>3.1.2</checkstyle-maven-plugin.version>
-    <spotbugs-maven-plugin.version>4.7.0.0</spotbugs-maven-plugin.version>
-    <sonar.version>3.9.1.2184</sonar.version>
-    <checkstyle.version>10.3</checkstyle.version>
-    <maven-flatten-plugin.version>1.2.7</maven-flatten-plugin.version>
-    <argLine>-Duser.timezone=UTC -Dfile.encoding=UTF-8 -Duser.language=en -Duser.region=US</argLine>
-    <maven-site-plugin.version>4.0.0-M1</maven-site-plugin.version>
-  </properties>
-  <repositories>
-    <repository>
-      <snapshots>
-        <enabled>false</enabled>
-      </snapshots>
-      <id>central</id>
-      <name>Central Repository</name>
-      <url>https://repo.maven.apache.org/maven2</url>
-    </repository>
-  </repositories>
-  <pluginRepositories>
-    <pluginRepository>
-      <releases>
-        <updatePolicy>never</updatePolicy>
-      </releases>
-      <snapshots>
-        <enabled>false</enabled>
-      </snapshots>
-      <id>central</id>
-      <name>Central Repository</name>
-      <url>https://repo.maven.apache.org/maven2</url>
-    </pluginRepository>
-  </pluginRepositories>
-  <build>
-    <sourceDirectory>${project.basedir}/src/main/java</sourceDirectory>
-    <scriptSourceDirectory>${project.basedir}/src/main/scripts</scriptSourceDirectory>
-    <testSourceDirectory>${project.basedir}/src/test/java</testSourceDirectory>
-    <outputDirectory>${project.build.directory}/classes</outputDirectory>
-    <testOutputDirectory>${project.build.directory}/test-classes</testOutputDirectory>
-    <resources>
-      <resource>
-        <directory>${project.basedir}/src/main/resources</directory>
-      </resource>
-    </resources>
-    <testResources>
-      <testResource>
-        <directory>${project.basedir}/src/test/resources</directory>
-      </testResource>
-    </testResources>
-    <directory>${project.basedir}/target</directory>
-    <finalName>xoai-5.0.0-RC1</finalName>
-    <plugins>
-      <plugin>
-        <artifactId>maven-surefire-plugin</artifactId>
-        <version>3.0.0-M7</version>
-        <configuration>
-          <skipTests>${skipUT}</skipTests>
-        </configuration>
-      </plugin>
-      <plugin>
-        <groupId>org.sonatype.plugins</groupId>
-        <artifactId>nexus-staging-maven-plugin</artifactId>
-        <version>1.6.13</version>
-        <extensions>true</extensions>
-        <configuration>
-          <serverId>ossrh</serverId>
-          <nexusUrl>https://s01.oss.sonatype.org</nexusUrl>
-          <autoReleaseAfterClose>true</autoReleaseAfterClose>
-        </configuration>
-      </plugin>
-      <plugin>
-        <groupId>org.kordamp.maven</groupId>
-        <artifactId>pomchecker-maven-plugin</artifactId>
-        <version>1.2.0</version>
-      </plugin>
-      <plugin>
-        <artifactId>maven-release-plugin</artifactId>
-        <version>3.0.0-M6</version>
-        <configuration>
-          <useReleaseProfile>false</useReleaseProfile>
-          <releaseProfiles>release</releaseProfiles>
-          <goals>deploy</goals>
-        </configuration>
-      </plugin>
-      <plugin>
-        <groupId>org.codehaus.mojo</groupId>
-        <artifactId>flatten-maven-plugin</artifactId>
-        <version>1.2.7</version>
-        <executions>
-          <execution>
-            <id>flatten</id>
-            <phase>process-resources</phase>
-            <goals>
-              <goal>flatten</goal>
-            </goals>
-          </execution>
-          <execution>
-            <id>flatten.clean</id>
-            <phase>clean</phase>
-            <goals>
-              <goal>clean</goal>
-            </goals>
-          </execution>
-        </executions>
-        <configuration>
-          <updatePomFile>true</updatePomFile>
-          <flattenMode>oss</flattenMode>
-          <pomElements>
-            <distributionManagement>remove</distributionManagement>
-            <repositories>remove</repositories>
-          </pomElements>
-        </configuration>
-      </plugin>
-      <plugin>
-        <artifactId>maven-enforcer-plugin</artifactId>
-        <version>3.1.0</version>
-        <executions>
-          <execution>
-            <id>enforce-maven</id>
-            <goals>
-              <goal>enforce</goal>
-            </goals>
-            <configuration>
-              <rules>
-                <requireMavenVersion>
-                  <version>3.6.3</version>
-                </requireMavenVersion>
-              </rules>
-            </configuration>
-          </execution>
-        </executions>
-      </plugin>
-      <plugin>
-        <groupId>com.diffplug.spotless</groupId>
-        <artifactId>spotless-maven-plugin</artifactId>
-        <version>2.22.8</version>
-        <configuration>
-          <ratchetFrom>origin/branch-5.0</ratchetFrom>
-          <formats>
-            <format>
-              <includes>
-                <include>*.md</include>
-                <include>.gitignore</include>
-              </includes>
-              <trimTrailingWhitespace />
-              <endWithNewline />
-              <indent>
-                <tabs>true</tabs>
-                <spacesPerTab>4</spacesPerTab>
-              </indent>
-            </format>
-          </formats>
-          <java>
-            <importOrder />
-            <removeUnusedImports />
-            <googleJavaFormat>
-              <version>1.8</version>
-              <style>AOSP</style>
-              <reflowLongStrings>true</reflowLongStrings>
-            </googleJavaFormat>
-          </java>
-        </configuration>
-      </plugin>
-    </plugins>
-  </build>
-  <reporting>
-    <outputDirectory>${project.build.directory}/site</outputDirectory>
-  </reporting>
-</project>