TABLE OF CONTENTS


Overview

This article provides guidance on how institutions may assist authors in covering Open Access Article Processing Charges (APCs) through sales agreements with Sage. It details the necessary steps authors should follow to initiate the request and ensure their publication process goes smoothly. 

How to make an article Open Access via my institution's Open Access agreement?

If the corresponding author's primary institution has an agreement with Sage covering some or all of the APC costs for Open Access publishing, the article will be seamlessly aligned with the agreement's terms. Sage will automatically recognize the article as eligible and apply the relevant discount/waiver. Subsequently, authors will receive communication via the Sage Open Access Portal inviting them to accept the Open Access publication offer and select the appropriate Creative Commons license for their article.


However, if the corresponding author's primary affiliation does not have such an agreement, but the secondary affiliation does, authors can contact the Sage Open Access Customer Services team at openaccess@sagepub.com for further assistance. The Open Access Customer Service team will be able to investigate and if required can change the secondary affiliation to the primary one, then the agreement can be applied accordingly. 


Please be aware that eligibility for our Open Access agreements is solely determined by the affiliations of the corresponding author. This means that if any co-authors are affiliated with institutions that have an agreement with Sage, their article will not be eligible for an Open Access agreement discount/waiver. 


For more information on article and author eligibility for an Open Access agreement, please see Am I eligible for an Open Access agreement? 


Please visit our website for more information on the specific terms and conditions of Sage's Open Access agreements.


If you believe that your article is eligible for an Open Access agreement, but you are concerned that you have not been contacted by Sage, please follow the below instructions depending on the stage of your article in the publication process: 


     Article is in peer review

  • If your article has not yet been accepted or has been accepted but has not entered the production system, we cannot accurately determine its eligibility for one of Sage's Open Access agreements.
  • Authors are encouraged to wait until you receive an email from production and subsequently we will assess the eligibility for an Open Access agreement. Based on the outcome, we will proceed to submit the article to the Sage Open Access Portal.


    Article is in production

  • If the article has been accepted and has entered the production system, it will be automatically tagged with our agreement upon ingestion into our Production system.
  • This information will then be forwarded to the Sage Open Access Portal and the portal will guide the authors through the necessary steps for Open Access publication.
  • If your article has entered production, but authors do not receive any communication from the portal within the next 10 days, we kindly request that they contact our Open Access Customer Service team at openaccess@sagepub.com. This will allow us to conduct further investigation into the article's eligibility.


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