Sage Publishing, formerly SAGE Publications, is an American
independent academic publishing company, founded in 1965 in
New York City
New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
by
Sara Miller McCune and now based in the
Newbury Park neighborhood of
Thousand Oaks, California
Thousand Oaks is the second-largest city in Ventura County, California, located in the northwestern part of Greater Los Angeles. Approximately from the city of Los Angeles and from Downtown Los Angeles, it is named after the many oak trees pr ...
.
Sage Publishing has offices located across North America, Europe, and the Asia Pacific region. In
North America
North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...
, Sage Publishing has offices in Los Angeles, Washington DC, and
Toronto
Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...
. The European operations are headquartered in
London, United Kingdom
London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
. In the Asia Pacific region, Sage Publishing has established offices in Melbourne, Australia,
India
India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...
and
Singapore
Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...
.
It publishes more than 1,000 journals, more than 800 books a year, reference works and electronic products covering business, humanities, social sciences, science, technology and medicine. SAGE also owns and publishes under the imprints of
Corwin Press (since 1990),
CQ Press
CQ Press, a division of SAGE Publishing, publishes books, directories, periodicals, and electronic products on American government and politics, with an expanding list in international affairs and journalism and mass communication.
History
Nelso ...
(since 2008), Learning Matters (since 2011), and
Adam Matthew Digital (since 2012).
History

SAGE was founded in 1965 in
New York City
New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
by Sara Miller (later Sara Miller McCune) with
Macmillan Inc. executive George D. McCune as a mentor;
the name of the company is an acronym formed from the first letters of their given names.
SAGE relocated to Southern California in 1966, after Miller and McCune married; McCune left Macmillan to formally join the company at that time.
Sara Miller McCune remained president for 18 years, shifting to board chairmen in 1984 (and still retains the title of executive chairman). The couple continued to develop the company together until George McCune's death in 1990.
In 2008, SAGE along with two other companies, sued
Georgia State University
Georgia State University (Georgia State, State, or GSU) is a Public university, public research university in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. Founded in 1913, it is one of the University System of Georgia's four research universities. It is al ...
for alleged copyright infringement due to faculty providing excerpts of materials to students.
The case concluded in 2020 with the publishing companies losing.
In 2018, SAGE reported a mean 2017
gender pay gap of 13.1% for its UK workforce, while the median was 10.3%.
In 2018, SAGE acquired Lean Library, a browser extension and discovery service, which then faced opposition by part of the
academic community for being owned by a for-profit, as opposed to
open data
Open data are data that are openly accessible, exploitable, editable and shareable by anyone for any purpose. Open data are generally licensed under an open license.
The goals of the open data movement are similar to those of other "open(-so ...
,
open source
Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use and view the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open source model is a decentrali ...
and
non-profit
A nonprofit organization (NPO), also known as a nonbusiness entity, nonprofit institution, not-for-profit organization, or simply a nonprofit, is a non-governmental (private) legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public, or so ...
products like
Unpaywall which facilitates usage of
open access
Open access (OA) is a set of principles and a range of practices through which nominally copyrightable publications are delivered to readers free of access charges or other barriers. With open access strictly defined (according to the 2001 de ...
works.
OASPA membership
SAGE Publishing was a founding member of the
Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association (OASPA) when it was established in 2008. In November 2013, OASPA reviewed SAGE's membership after the ''Journal of International Medical Research'' accepted a false and intentionally flawed paper created and submitted by a reporter for the journal ''
Science
Science is a systematic discipline that builds and organises knowledge in the form of testable hypotheses and predictions about the universe. Modern science is typically divided into twoor threemajor branches: the natural sciences, which stu ...
'' as part of a "
sting" to test the effectiveness of the peer-review processes of
open access journals
Pulsus Group is a health informatics and digital marketing company and publisher of scientific, technical, and medical literature. It was formed in 1984, primarily to publish peer-reviewed medical journals. Pulsus published 98 hybrid and fu ...
. SAGE's membership was reinstated at the end of the six month review period following changes to the journal's editorial processes.
Lawsuits
In September 2024,
Lucina Uddin, a neuroscience professor at
UCLA
The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the C ...
, sued Sage Publishing along with five other
academic journal
An academic journal (or scholarly journal or scientific journal) is a periodical publication in which Scholarly method, scholarship relating to a particular academic discipline is published. They serve as permanent and transparent forums for the ...
publishers in a proposed
class-action lawsuit, alleging that the publishers violated
antitrust
Competition law is the field of law that promotes or seeks to maintain market competition by regulating anti-competitive conduct by companies. Competition law is implemented through public and private enforcement. It is also known as antitrust l ...
law by agreeing not to compete against each other for manuscripts and by denying scholars payment for
peer review
Peer review is the evaluation of work by one or more people with similar competencies as the producers of the work (:wiktionary:peer#Etymology 2, peers). It functions as a form of self-regulation by qualified members of a profession within the ...
services.
Fraud
An academic fraud, that impacted journals published by Sage Publishing, particularly the
Journal of Vibration and Control (JVC), was uncovered in July 2014 following a 14-month internal investigation by Sage, which revealed a fake peer-review scam involving hundreds of fraudulent and assumed identities.
The scam was orchestrated mainly by Peter Chen, a physicist at the
National Pingtung University of Education (NPUE) in Taiwan. Chen used fake identities and Gmail accounts to pose as university-based scientists, manipulating the peer-review process to ensure favorable reviews for submissions. The scam involved creating a network of papers where the same small group of authors reviewed each other's work and appeared together as co-authors. This practice, known as a "peer review ring," allowed Chen to publish numerous articles with minimal scrutiny. The lack of vetting and the lax editorial policy at JVC, which allowed authors to nominate preferred reviewers without adequate verification, facilitated the scam.
The discovery of the scam led to the retraction of 60 research articles published over four years in JVC. The retractions were a result of Sage's investigation, which found that the authors and reviewers involved in the scam did not respond to verification requests. The Education Minister of Taiwan,
Chiang Wei-ling, was also implicated as his name appeared on several of the retracted papers, leading to his resignation. Sage subsequently claimed to have taken steps to ensure compliance with the highest standards of peer review and publication, including conducting additional reviews of their guidance to editors and authors.
Trading name
Sage is a trading name of
* Sage Publications Inc,
* Sage Publications Ltd,
* Sage Publications India PVT LTD,
* Sage Publications Asia‐Pacific PTE LTD
Acquisitions
SAGE has
acquired a number of other companies, including:
*Pion Limited, founded in 1959 by Adam Gelbtuch and John Ashby, was the publisher of four journals in the ''
Environment and Planning'' series. SAGE acquired Pion in May 2015.
*Global Village Publishing, which develops software and services for
electronic publishing
Electronic publishing (also referred to as e-publishing, digital publishing, or online publishing) includes the digital publication of e-books, digital magazines, and the development of digital libraries and catalogues. It also includes the ed ...
, was acquired by SAGE in May 2018.
*
Talis Group, an
educational technology
Educational technology (commonly abbreviated as edutech, or edtech) is the combined use of computer hardware, software, and educational theory and practice to facilitate learning and teaching. When referred to with its abbreviation, "EdTech" ...
company that developed the
learning management system Talis Aspire, was acquired by SAGE in August 2018.
*
Mary Ann Liebert, which publishes more than 100 peer-reviewed journals in biotechnology and life sciences.
Publications
*''
Improving Schools'', academic journal that covers education
*''
Journal of Developing Societies'', academic journal that covers development
See also
*
Journals published by SAGE
References
External links
*
*
{{Authority control
Publishing companies established in 1965
Academic publishing companies
Book publishing companies based in California
Companies based in Thousand Oaks, California
1965 establishments in New York City
American companies established in 1965