Journal profile · SOCIAL SCIENCES, INTERDISCIPLINARY
SAGE Open
ISSN 2158-2440 · SAGE Publishing · United States
SAGE Open: CAS Zone 4 · Sociology (2025 upgraded edition); impact factor 2.33; fully open access; APC about USD 1,600; review about 12 weeks (community reports); acceptance rate 22.1% (journal website); 2,032 articles in 2025; indexed in SSCI and Scopus.
Scope
Aims, scope and focus
SAGE Open is published by SAGE Publishing and is in Zone 4 of Sociology in the CAS Journal Ranking (2025 upgraded edition). By OpenAlex counts of its recent articles, its largest topics are Digital Marketing and Social Media, Job Satisfaction and Organizational Behavior and Technology Adoption and User Behaviour, together about 22.5% of its articles. (generated from OpenAlex topic counts and CAS ranking data)
Sage Open (Impact Factor 2.0) is an open access publication from Sage. It publishes peer-reviewed, original research and review articles in an open access format. Articles may span the full spectrum of the social and behavioral sciences and the humanities. Sage Open seeks to be the world’s premier open access outlet for academic research. As such, unlike traditional journals, Sage Open does not limit content due to page budgets or thematic significance. Rather, Sage Open evaluates the scientific and research methods of each article for validity and accepts articles solely on the basis of the research. This approach allows readers greater access and gives them the power to determine the significance of each article through article-level usage metrics. Likewise, by not restricting papers to a narrow discipline, Sage Open facilitates the discovery of the connections between papers, whether within or between disciplines. This journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). Why publish in Sage Open:Global distribution of your research via the award-winning Sage Journals online platformProfessional copyediting and typesetting of your article will ensure qualityContinuous-publication online format ensures rapid publication upon acceptanceWho should submit manuscripts to Sage Open?Authors who want their articles to receive free, broad, and global distribution on a powerful, highly discoverable publishing platformAuthors who want their articles branded and marketed by a world-leading social science publisherAuthors who want or need their articles to be open access because of university or government mandatesAuthors who want their articles to receive quality reviews and efficient production To view Sage Open’s list of Editorial Board members please visit /editorial-board/sgo.Manuscript submissions will be handled online through Sage Track, Sage’s web-based peer review and submission system, powered by ScholarOne ManuscriptsTM. Visit http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/sageopen for full manuscript submission guidelines.Please direct any inquiries to sageopen@sagepub.com. This journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).Open access article processing charge (APC) informationThe article processing charge for this journal is $2400. The APC is payable when a manuscript is accepted after peer review, before it is published. The APC is subject to taxes where applicable. Please see further details here.
From the journal's Aims & Scope
Research area (LetPub): SOCIAL SCIENCES, INTERDISCIPLINARY
Editor-in-chief Rory MagrathPublisher website
Editorial board by country: 25 in mainland China (about 3%); most named United States 254, United Kingdom 58, Türkiye 41, India 28, Australia 26 (780 members with a country) Editorial board ↗Publisher website ·
Main research topics OpenAlex counts of recent articles; shares are approximate
- Digital Marketing and Social MediaSocial Sciences7.7%
- Job Satisfaction and Organizational BehaviorBusiness, Management and Accounting7.4%
- Technology Adoption and User BehaviourDecision Sciences7.3%
- EFL/ESL Teaching and LearningArts and Humanities6.8%
- Energy, Environment, Economic GrowthEconomics, Econometrics and Finance6%
- Environmental Sustainability in BusinessBusiness, Management and Accounting5.2%
- Entrepreneurship Studies and InfluencesBusiness, Management and Accounting4.6%
- Customer Service Quality and LoyaltyBusiness, Management and Accounting3.9%
Rankings & indexing
CAS ranking and database indexing
CAS Journal Ranking
CAS Journal Ranking, upgraded edition (March 2025)Sociology Zone 4
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Sociology | Zone 4 |
| Minor | Social Sciences, Interdisciplinary | Zone 4 |
Top journal: noReview journal: no
CAS Xinrui Journal Ranking (March 2026)Sociology Zone 3
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Sociology | Zone 3 |
| Minor | Social Sciences, Interdisciplinary | Zone 3 |
Top journal: noReview journal: not marked
CAS Journal Ranking, previous upgraded edition (December 2023)Sociology Zone 4
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Sociology | Zone 4 |
| Minor | Social Sciences, Interdisciplinary | Zone 4 |
Top journal: noReview journal: no
Database indexing
SSCIScopusDOAJLetPub
International journal early-warning lists: not listed in any editionLetPub
Editions, and major and minor categories, are shown separately and never merged into one zone; check which edition your institution uses before you submit or report.
Metrics
Impact metrics and publication volume
Impact
- Impact factor
- 2.33LetPub ·
- Impact factor (publisher)
- 2.4Publisher website ·
- 5-year impact factor (publisher)
- 2.8Publisher website ·
- CiteScore 2026-06
- 3.5LetPub ·
- SJR 2026-06
- 0.54LetPub ·
- SNIP 2026-06
- 0.98LetPub ·
- h-index
- 121OpenAlex ·
- i10-index
- 3,626OpenAlex ·
- 2-year mean citedness
- 3.3OpenAlex ·
- Self-citation rate
- 8.3%LetPub ·
- Share of gold OA articles
- 99.85%LetPub ·
Volume
- Articles per year
- 2,027LetPub ·
- Articles per year (publisher)
- 3Publisher website ·
Articles by year OpenAlex count · 10,543 in total · the current year is incomplete
| Year | Articles | Open access | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 1,077 | 1,077 | 421 |
| 2025 | 2,032 | 2,032 | 4,914 |
| 2024 | 1,452 | 1,452 | 9,732 |
| 2023 | 1,087 | 1,087 | 11,231 |
| 2022 | 808 | 808 | 13,384 |
| 2021 | 917 | 917 | 18,822 |
Sources count differently and were observed at different times, so each source's own value is kept; "publisher" marks figures from the journal's website.
Review & acceptance
Review time and acceptance
- Average review time (community reports)
- about 12 weeksLetPub ·
- Acceptance rate (publisher)
- 22.1%Publisher website ·
- Submission to first decision
- 14 daysPublisher website ·
- Acceptance to publication
- 35 daysPublisher website ·
- Submission to publication (journal-reported)
- about 12 weeksDOAJ ·
- Peer review
- Double anonymous peer reviewDOAJ
Community reports come from authors' own submissions (confidence 0.5) and are not a promise from the journal; for publisher figures, the journal's own definitions apply.
Fees & open access
APC and open-access policy
Fully open accessDOAJ
Every article is open access; authors usually pay an article processing charge (APC).
| Source | APC | Fee waiver | License | Observed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DOAJ | USD 1,600 | Yes | CC BY | |
| OpenAlex | USD 1,600 | — | — | |
| LetPub | USD 2,250 | Yes | — | |
| Publisher website | USD 2,400 | — | — |
The journal's website is authoritative for fees; sources were observed at different times and each keeps its own value, without averaging.
Submission
Article types and submission policies (journal website)
What to prepare10 items from the author guidelines
- Keywords
- ≥ 4
- Manuscript length
- ≤ 10,000 words
- Reference style
- APA
- Templates
- LaTeX and Word
- First submission
- Free format: the journal's layout is not required
- Suggested reviewers
- Optional
- Highlights
- Required
- Graphical abstract
- Optional
- Cover letter
- Required
- Not considered
- clinical trials
Article types accepted5
- literature reviewView our topical sections currently accepting submissions View our Special Collections currently accepting submissions. Sage Open welcomes the submission of ori…Length not stated
- literature reviewsSage Open welcomes the submission of original research articles and literature reviews.Length not stated
- original research articleView our topical sections currently accepting submissions View our Special Collections currently accepting submissions. Sage Open welcomes the submission of ori…Length not stated
- original research articlesSage Open welcomes the submission of original research articles and literature reviews.Length not stated
- reviewView our topical sections currently accepting submissions View our Special Collections currently accepting submissions. Sage Open welcomes the submission of ori…Length not stated
Policy excerpts from the journal's websiteAuthorship, Data availability, Publication ethics, Open access, Peer review, Plagiarism, Preprints, Trial registration / reporting guidelines
- Authorship Author contributions
You will be asked to list the contribution of each author as part of the submission process. Please include the Author Contributions heading within your submission after the Acknowledgements section. The information you give on submission will then show under the Author Contributions heading later at the proofing stage.
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Data availability Data availability
The Journal is committed to facilitating openness, transparency and reproducibility of research, and has the following research data sharing policy. For more information, including FAQs please visit the Sage Research Data policy pages. Subject to appropriate ethical and legal considerations, authors are encouraged to: Share your research data in a relevant public data repository Include a data ava…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Publication ethics Ethical considerations
Please include your ethics approval statements under this heading, even if you have already included ethics approval information in your methods section. If ethical approval was not required, you need to explicitly state this. All papers reporting studies involving human participants, human data or human tissue must state that the relevant Ethics Committee or Institutional Review Board approved th…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Open access Publishing fees and open access
Online-only journal Model summary
Sage Open is an open access, peer-reviewed journal. All accepted articles are made freely available online immediately upon publication, are published under a Creative Commons license, and hosted online in perpetuity. If, after peer review, your manuscript is accepted for publication, a one-time article processing charge (APC) is payable to cover the cost of publishing, paid by the funder, institu…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Peer review Peer review policy
Peer review type: Double anonymized Model summary
The following summary describes the peer review process for this journal: Identity transparency: Double-anonymized Reviewer interacts with: Sage Open Editorial Office Review information published: None Your manuscript will undergo an initial evaluation. If it does not conform to the requirements laid out in these guidelines, it will be returned to you for amendments prior to peer review. Manuscrip…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Plagiarism Plagiarism
The journal and Sage take issues of copyright infringement, plagiarism or other breaches of best practice in publication very seriously. Please read Sage's complete policy on plagiarism and the actions we may take.
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Preprints Preprints
The journal will consider submissions of manuscripts that have been posted on preprint servers. Please enter the preprint DOI in the designated field when submitting your manuscript. We advise that you inform the Journal Editorial office about your posted preprint at submission. Note that you should not post an updated version of your manuscript on a preprint server while it is being peer reviewed…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Trial registration / reporting guidelines Reporting Guidelines
Your manuscript should follow APA Journal Article Reporting Standards (JARS) for each type of method.
Source ↗Publisher website ·
Excerpts are quoted from the journal's website; "model summary" lines are written by Workers AI and checked against the text. The journal's website is authoritative.
Profile
Publication details and official links
- Publisher
- SAGE Publishing
- Country or region
- United States
- Language
- English
- ISSN
- 2158-2440
- Official links
- Journal homepage ↗DOAJ
- Submission system ↗Publisher website
- Author guidelines ↗LetPub
- Aims & Scope ↗LetPub
- Special issues ↗Publisher website
- APC information ↗DOAJ
- Fee waivers ↗DOAJ
- Open access statement ↗DOAJ
- License & copyright ↗DOAJ
- Peer review process ↗LetPub
- Editorial board ↗LetPub
- Plagiarism policy ↗DOAJ
FAQ
Frequently asked questions about SAGE Open
What CAS zone is SAGE Open in?
In the 2025 upgraded edition of the CAS Journal Ranking, SAGE Open is in Zone 4 of Sociology, and in Zone 4 of the minor category Social Sciences, Interdisciplinary. In the 2026 Xinrui edition it is in Zone 3 of Sociology. Zones from different editions, and from major and minor categories, are not interchangeable.
What is the impact factor of SAGE Open?
The latest impact factor listed by LetPub is 2.33; CiteScore 3.5, h-index 121.
How long does peer review take at SAGE Open?
Authors report an average review time of about 12 weeks; the journal's website gives an acceptance rate of 22.1%. Article statistics cover accepted papers only, publisher figures follow the journal's own definitions, and community reports come from authors' own submissions; none is a promise from the journal.
What are the manuscript requirements of SAGE Open?
According to the journal's author guidelines: Keywords: ≥ 4; Manuscript length: ≤ 10,000 words; Reference style: APA; Templates: LaTeX and Word; First submission: Free format: the journal's layout is not required; Suggested reviewers: Optional; Highlights: Required; Graphical abstract: Optional; Cover letter: Required. A model extracted these from the author guidelines and each was checked against the text; check the latest version on the journal's website before submitting.
Where are the editorial board members of SAGE Open based?
Of the 780 board members whose country the journal's board page names, 25 (about 3%) are in mainland China; the countries named most often are United States (254), United Kingdom (58) and Türkiye (41). Counted from the institutions listed on the board page; for reference only.
Which databases index SAGE Open?
According to LetPub and DOAJ records, SAGE Open is indexed in SSCI, Scopus and DOAJ.
Is SAGE Open open access, and what is the APC?
SAGE Open is a fully open-access journal. APC about USD 1,600.
Sources and updates
The facts on this page come from LetPub, Publisher website, OpenAlex, DOAJ; every figure is tagged with its source and the date it was observed, and conflicting values are kept per source. LetPub source page: view ↗ (archived 2026-08-26). Last updated: .