Publication Guide
SAGE Publications - rebranded simply as Sage in 2023 - is the world's leading independent academic publisher in the social and behavioral sciences. Founded in 1965 by Sara Miller McCune with $500 of startup capital in a one-room New York office, the company moved to Southern California in 1966 and has been headquartered in Thousand Oaks ever since, with a major London office serving Europe. Sage publishes 1,000+ peer-reviewed journals (about 1,100 titles appear on 2026 lists), plus books, reference works, and library resources through imprints including Corwin (education) and CQ Press (politics and policy).
Two things distinguish Sage from the other large commercial publishers. First, its portfolio is weighted toward the humanities and social sciences: sociology, psychology, management, education, communication, criminology, and political science, alongside a substantial medical list. Many of its most prestigious titles are published on behalf of learned societies - the American Sociological Review for the American Sociological Association, the Journal of Marketing for the American Marketing Association, and Psychological Science for the Association for Psychological Science. Second, Sage is independently owned: founder Sara Miller McCune transferred her shares to an independent trust designed to guarantee the company's independence indefinitely, so it faces no shareholder pressure to be sold or merged.
Which SAGE journal fits your paper?
Sage's routes serve different papers, budgets, and open-access requirements. Use the guide below to pick the right one.
| You're most likely to... | Choose this route |
|---|---|
| Want a field-leading society journal in sociology, psychology, marketing, or management | Society flagships - American Sociological Review, Journal of Marketing, Psychological Science, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. Selective, subscription-based, no fee to publish; OA available via Sage Choice. |
| Want a respected subscription journal in your subfield with no publication fee | The core Sage list - 900+ subscription titles across HSS and medicine. Free to publish; add OA later through Sage Choice or a Read & Publish deal. |
| Need gold OA to satisfy a funder mandate | Sage gold OA titles - 150+ fully open-access journals with APCs from roughly 3,500+; CC BY license available. |
| Want a broad-scope, affordable OA venue for solid social-science work | Sage Open - Sage's multidisciplinary OA mega-journal for the social and behavioral sciences; sound-methodology review; APC ~$2,250. |
| Are covered by an institutional Read & Publish agreement | Sage Choice at no cost - authors at participating institutions can publish OA in 900+ hybrid journals with the APC covered; check your library. |
What SAGE actually publishes
1,000+ peer-reviewed journals, organized broadly as:
- Society and association journals - a large share of the portfolio is published in partnership with learned societies, which own the titles and set editorial policy while Sage handles publishing.
- Sage-owned subscription journals - subject-specialty titles across sociology, psychology, education, management, communication, criminology, health, and clinical medicine, including Urban Studies, Human Relations, and Organization Studies.
- Gold open-access journals - 150+ fully-OA titles, led by the mega-journal Sage Open and OA companions to established titles.
- Books and reference - research methods (the well-known 'little green books'), textbooks via Corwin, and politics/policy reference via CQ Press.
Open access at SAGE
Sage offers three OA routes:
- Gold OA (fully-OA journals) - 150+ titles including Sage Open. APCs typically range from ~3,500+ depending on the journal; Sage Open charges ~$2,250. Default license CC BY (CC BY-NC available on some titles).
- Hybrid OA (Sage Choice) - available on 900+ subscription journals (nearly the whole list). The standard Sage Choice APC is around $3,000, with some titles priced higher or lower; it is offered only after acceptance, so the OA decision cannot influence peer review.
- Green OA (self-archiving) - Sage permits self-archiving of the accepted manuscript with a per-title embargo; check the journal's policy in Sherpa Romeo.
- Read & Publish (transformative agreements) - Sage has agreements with institutions and consortia across the UK, Europe, North America, and other regions that cover or heavily discount APCs for affiliated corresponding authors. Check the ESAC registry or ask your library before paying an APC out of pocket.
APCs - actual numbers
Figures below are indicative 2026 list prices in USD before tax; Sage revises prices annually, so always check the journal's own fees page or the Sage Choice price list before submission.
| Route | APC | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Sage Open (OA mega-journal) | ~$2,250 | Broad-scope social and behavioral science; sound-methodology peer review |
| Gold OA titles | ~3,500+ | Varies by journal; smaller HSS titles at the low end, medical titles higher |
| Sage Choice (hybrid) | ~$3,000 standard | Some titles above or below; offered after acceptance only |
| Subscription publication | $0 | Most Sage journals charge nothing to publish behind the paywall |
Waivers: authors in eligible low-income countries receive full APC waivers, and authors in a further tier of countries receive 50% discounts, in line with Research4Life/EIFL country lists.
Peer review process
- Default model: single-anonymized review on much of the list.
- Double-anonymized: common across Sage's humanities and social-science journals - check each title's guidelines, and anonymize your manuscript where required.
- Society titles: peer-review policy is set by the owning society and can differ from Sage-wide defaults.
- Turnaround: varies widely by title; established HSS journals often take 2-4 months to a first decision, and selective flagships can take longer.
How to submit
- Pick the journal. Use the Sage Journal Recommender (journalfinder.sagepub.com) to match your abstract to candidate titles.
- Read the submission guidelines. Every Sage journal has title-specific author instructions; APA style dominates the HSS list, with Harvard and Vancouver used elsewhere.
- Prepare your manuscript. Use the journal's Word or LaTeX template on SciSpace and follow its reference style exactly.
- Submit via Sage Track. Most Sage journals use Sage Track, the Sage-branded ScholarOne Manuscripts system; the journal's guidelines page links to the correct site.
- Track and revise. Sage Track handles status updates, reviewer reports, and revision rounds.
Ethics and integrity
Sage is a member of COPE, OASPA, and STM, and follows COPE guidance on authorship disputes, corrections, and retractions. Sage Choice is deliberately offered only post-acceptance to keep payment decisions out of peer review. Data-sharing and disclosure requirements are set per journal, with society-owned titles applying their own policies on top of Sage's baseline.
