UMass Amherst Libraries Join NERL in Open Access Publishing Agreement for Sage Journals

The UMass Amherst Libraries have joined NorthEast Research Libraries (NERL) in an agreement with Sage that covers open access publication charges in over 1,100 Sage journals. Article manuscripts by UMass Amherst corresponding authors accepted between January 1, 2026 and December 31, 2028 are eligible to be published under an open Creative Commons license with no charge to the author. Sage is an independent, global scholarly publisher of peer-reviewed journals across health, science, and social sciences. All Sage subscription/hybrid and gold open access journals are covered by this agreement. 

UMass Amherst corresponding authors have paid over $42,500 in author processing charges to publish 32 articles in Sage journals since 2020. Sage article processing charges range from $1,200 to $5,780 per manuscript, and these costs will now be covered by the Libraries. Seven manuscripts by UMass Amherst corresponding authors have been accepted to date but not yet published in 2026. 

Open access articles are available to anyone, anywhere to view and cite. Equally important, authors retain their copyright, and the Sage agreement enables UMass Amherst researchers to more easily comply with funder public access requirements. The Sage-Libraries agreement is one of several agreements that offers low or no-cost open access  publication to UMass Amherst corresponding authors. 

For more information about how to publish open access under the Sage or any other publisher agreement, contact Christine Turner, Scholarly Communication Librarian, cturner@umass.edu.