A new publishing agreement with Sage, a global academic book and journal publisher, will further expand open access publication opportunities for University of South Carolina Columbia faculty and affiliated researchers.

Beginning January 1, 2024, the agreement will allow corresponding authors affiliated with the USC Columbia campus to publish open access without charge in 900+ subscription journals in the 2024 Sage Premier package, which offers hybrid open access publishing. Articles must be accepted for publication between January 1, 2024, and December 31, 2026. The agreement also provides read access to the entire Sage Premier journals collection through December 31, 2026, for the entire USC Columbia community.

Under the terms of the agreement, authors whose work is accepted for publication in eligible Sage journals will be contacted by Sage and given the choice to publish traditionally or open access. No article processing charges are required.

“A recent survey of USC faculty suggests that authors prefer to publish open access to expand the visibility and reach of their research, but that publishing fees are a barrier,” says Amie Freeman, Scholarly Communications Librarian for University Libraries. “We are pleased to be able to offer this choice to USC researchers.”

The Sage agreement adds to a growing list of open access research and publication opportunities facilitated by University Libraries.

“Open access agreements are becoming increasingly common and important in scholarly communications,” says David Banush, Dean of Libraries. “These agreements allow our researchers to share their work freely across the globe, increasing their impact and their citation rates. They also save money, leaving more funds in researchers’ budgets.”

Why publish open access?

• High visibility – Articles are made freely available to anyone, anywhere
• Easy compliance – Meet open access mandates
• Copyright retention – Articles are published under a Creative Commons license