How to Get Published Webinar Series: Open Access Q&A

By Jessica Lipowski and Jonathan collin

In our free monthly webinar series, we receive hundreds of questions from attendees and we try to answer as many as possible during the webinar. We selected a few of the most common questions regarding Open Access, and here is what our experts had to say:

How much does an APC typically cost? Do authors from lower income countries benefit or get a discount? 

The best place to find out the price to publish for normal versus open access articles is to check the journal’s submission guidelines.

If you are interested in publishing open access, you can read more here about SAGE’s Open Access publishing options. SAGE’s gold open access journals do offer waiver options. Read more here about SAGE’s policy. SAGE partners with the Research4Life program and authors from any of the countries listed in Group A and Group B are automatically eligible to receive a full APC waiver. If a country is not listed, the corresponding author of an accepted article can submit a waiver request directly to SAGE using the email address openaccess@sagepub.com.

There is also still the option to publish free of charge under the traditional subscription model, and while we are committed to promoting Open Access, this is the path we would encourage in these circumstances. 

Will you automatically be notified of a discount or waiver, even if you were not aware on submission? 

Yes, SAGE will notify you if you are eligible for a country waiver. Country waivers are designated by the Research4Life program and apply to both Group A and Group B countries. Where the corresponding author is listed as affiliated to an institution in a Group A or Group B country, the waiver will be automatically applied.  

Why do APCs vary? 

The APC for individual journals considers many factors, including the running of peer-review systems, copyediting and typesetting, hosting the article in perpetuity on dedicated servers and marketing. Journal specific factors include the impact, prestige, longevity, article volume and article turnaround times.

Can a manuscript be rejected if I pay for Open Access? 

For gold open access journals, the Article Processing Charge (APC) is payable after acceptance of the article and before publication. For hybrid open access (SAGE Choice) the article can be made open access on publication or can be requested to be made open access after publication. You will only pay the APC if youur article is accepted. If an article is rejected, no APC applies. A handful of journals will charge a submission fee. Any fees you might be obligated to pay will be clearly outlined in the author guidelines.

How can we make authors more aware of Open Access? 

SAGE aims to provide authors with all the information they need to make an informed choice on publishing decisions. One route is through the broadcast of webinars such as this one, another is through our Author Gateway (https://uk.sagepub.com/en-gb/eur/journal-author-gateway) which takes you through our policies and provides guidance from submission to publication.  

Is OA often overlooked by reviewers? 

Editors aim to invite peer reviewers with experience in the field of the manuscript by looking at their publication records and CV. It’s true that the increase in the number of journal articles submitted globally has made it harder to secure reviewers for papers, however it stands that good papers will always interest relevant reviewers. 

For more information on Open Access, check out our portal.
If you would like to register for upcoming webinars or to watch the recordings of past events, click here.

About the Authors