Does the plugin also allow to actually upload the publications (PDF, etc.)?

Tested it myself. Turns out it offers an upload window, but it’s just a shortcut to the gallery. This means the plugin and the gallery work in parallel and the plugin doesn’t even attempt to serve as a file manager.
As an example, if you delete a publication it doesn’t delete the matching file, and vice versa.
It’s good for a small file list, where I guess every member uploads his/her own publications, not for dozens or hundreds of files.