Independent scholarly publisher, SAGE Publications, is now offering authors of papers published on SAGE Journals Online, the option to make their primary research articles freely available on publication. The ‘SAGE Open’ publishing option has been launched primarily to ensure that authors can comply with new stringent funding body requirements, (for example those now in place from the Wellcome Trust), and ensures that relevant journals are compliant with NIH/Wellcome Trust and other grant funder requirements.   

The SAGE Open programme will initially operate across a number of biomedical journals in the SAGE portfolio. The fee per article for this service is $3,000USD/£1600GBP and excludes any other potential author fees levied by some journals (such as colour charges, which are additional) as well as taxes where applicable.

Under this scheme, SAGE will post to PubMed Central (PMC) and its international equivalents, such as UKPMC or PMCI, on behalf of authors where their funder requires it. All other SAGE policies regarding open access archiving remain unchanged.

The SAGE Open option will be made available to authors of primary research articles only on acceptance of their paper for publication. This is in order to prevent any potential conflicts of interest, and to ensure that authors’ choice/funder requirements have no influence on the editorial peer review and decision-making.

Payment of the SAGE Open fee will enable articles to be immediately available on SAGE Journals Online to non-subscribers, as well as to subscribers to that journal. It will also permit authors to submit the final manuscript to their funding agency’s preferred archive if applicable.

Initially, this option will be made available for a selection of journals (see below for full list). These journals will publish articles in a hybrid manner. Those authors who do not wish to use this service will be under no pressure to do so, and their article will be published free of charge, in the usual manner. All existing policies on author posting of the final version will then apply.

The following list of journals participate in SAGE Open:

Adaptive Behaviour
Angiology
Chronic Illness
Chronic Respiratory Disease
Clinical and Applied Thrombosis/Hemostasis
Clinical Pediatrics
Clinical Rehabilitation
Clinical Trials
Concurrent Engineering
High Performance Polymers
Human & Experimental Toxicology
Indoor and Built Environment
Innate Immunity
Integrative Cancer Therapies
International Journal of Damage Mechanics
International Journal of High Performance Computing Applications
International Journal of Robotics Research
Journal of Bioactive and Compatible Polymers
Journal of Biological Rhythms
Journal of Biomaterials Applications
Journal of Biomolecular Screening
Journal of Building Physics
Journal of Cardiovascular Pharmacology and Therapeutics
Journal of Cellular Plastics
Journal of Composite Materials
Journal of Elastomers and Polymers
Journal of Fire Science
Journal of Hand Surgery (European Volume)
Journal of Industrial Textiles
Journal of Intelligent Materials Systems and Structures
Journal of Oncology Pharmacy Practice
Journal of Pharmacy Practice
Journal of Plastic Film and Sheeting
Journal of Psychopharmacology
Journal of Reinforced Plastics and Composites
Journal of Sandwich Structures and Materials
Journal of Thermoplastic Composite Materials
Journal of Vibration and Control
Lupus
Mathematics and Mechanics of Solids
Multiple Sclerosis
The Neuroscientist
Palliative Medicine
Perfusion
Scandinavian Journal of Public Health
Seminars in Cardiothoracic and Vascular Anesthesia
Statistical Methods in Medical Research
Structural Health Monitoring
Surgical Innovation
Textile Research Journal
Toxicologic Pathology
Toxicology & Industrial Health
Trauma
Vascular Medicine

Please send questions or comments not covered by our list of frequently asked questions via e-mail to authorqueries@sagepub.co.uk