Contributor agreement

Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement

Sage requires the author as the rights holder to sign a Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement for all articles we publish. Sage’s Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement is a licence agreement under which the author retains copyright in the work but grant Sage the sole and exclusive right and licence to publish for the full legal term of copyright. Exceptions may exist where assignment of copyright is required or preferred by a proprietor other than Sage. In this case copyright in the work will be assigned from the author to the society.

For information on open access options at Sage, please visit the Open Access pages.

Frequently Asked Questions:

Contributor Agreement

1. What is an exclusive licence agreement?
2. Why does Sage require an exclusive licence agreement?
3. Who owns copyright in my Contribution?
4. What are my rights as author?
5. What are my options for signing and returning my Contributor Agreement?
6. What if I have co-authors contributing to this Contribution?
7. What if my employer holds the copyright in my Contribution?
8. What if I am a government employee?
9. When do I need to submit my signed Contributor Agreement?
10. Why do I need to indemnify the Journal and Sage?
11. What is the Declaration of Conflicting Interests?
12. Does the form enable me to comply with particular funder and institutional mandates including the NIH?
13. What if my employer or research funding body requires I submit an addendum to my Contributor Agreement?
14. Can I publish my Contribution open access in the Sage Choice Scheme?
15. Do I need to sign a Contributor Form if I am publishing my article open access in the Sage Choice scheme?

1. What is an exclusive licence agreement?
With an exclusive licence you retain copyright. Your Contribution is credited as © The Author(s) but you license the control of all rights exclusively to Sage or, where relevant, a society or other proprietary publishing partner. This means that all licensing requests including permissions are managed by Sage.

2. Why does Sage require an exclusive licence agreement?
We seek to bring your Contribution to the widest possible readership. An exclusive licence helps us ensure adequate protection against infringement of copyright protected material through breach of copyright or piracy anywhere in the world. It also ensures that requests by third parties to reprint or reproduce a contribution, or part of it in any format, are handled efficiently in accordance with general policy which encourages dissemination of knowledge inside the framework of copyright.

3. Who owns the copyright in your Contribution?
If you have written your Contribution yourself, or with co–authors, and you have not been commissioned to write the article by someone else (either by a government agency, your employer or any other party) you (and any co–authors) will hold the copyright in your article. If you have written the Contribution in the capacity of your role at work or your contract of employment you may not hold copyright in your Contribution, and you will need to check the relevant box on your Contributor Agreement. Please see below for further information.

4. What are my rights as author?
Please visit Journal Author Archiving Policies and Re-Use.

5. What are my options for signing and returning my Contributor Agreement?
You may sign and return your Contributor Agreement in the following ways:

• Most Sage journals have instituted an online submission and review system known as Sage Track. This system will allow you to agree to the terms and conditions of the Journal Publishing Contributor’s Agreement online and will automate the return of your contributor agreement.
• By e–mail – a scanned hard copy of the Agreement with your signature on it or a digital original copy with your electronic signature are equally acceptable.
• Traditional hard copy – please sign and return the Agreement to Sage.
• By fax – please sign and fax a copy of the Agreement to Sage.

6. What if I have co–authors contributing to this article?
You must ensure that you have your co-authors' consent to submit the article for publication and that you have the right to sign the Contributor Agreement on their behalf. If they preferred, all authors may sign the agreement. Co-authors may either all sign and return the same copy of the agreement, or each author may sign and return separate copies of the agreement.

7. What if my employer holds the copyright in my work?
To indicate that the rights to your work are owned by your employer, you may check the relevant box on your Contributor Agreement and also have an authorised representative of your employer sign the Contributor Agreement before returning it.

8. What if I am a government employee?
a) If you are a UK, Canadian, Australian or British Commonwealth government employee, you just need to check the regular "work made for hire for employment" box or "Other Government work (not U.S.)", as applicable to your agreement, and have your manager sign the Contributor Agreement too.
b) If you are a US federal employee, please check with your manager, but your work is likely the public domain, so not in copyright and therefore not assignable. Please check the relevant box on the form.

9. When do I need to submit my signed Contributor Agreement?
You will receive a Contributor Agreement upon acceptance of your article which should be signed and returned as soon as possible to prevent any delays in the production process for your article. Without the signed form we will be unable to publish the article.

10. Why do I need to indemnify the Journal and Sage?
It is standard for all Sage contributors to make certain warranties to the Journal and Sage Publishing. This is simply because as the author of the article you are the only person who can assure us of the information stated in the warranties, including that the article we are publishing is your own work, and does not infringe the rights of anyone else.  We have taken care to ensure the warranties are limited to statements that are reasonably within your control as author.

11. What is the Declaration of Conflicting Interests?
A Declaration of Conflicting Interests policy refers to a formal policy a journal may have to require a conflict of interest statement or conflict of interest disclosure from a submitting or publishing author.

12. Does the Contributor Agreement enable me to comply with particular funder and institutional mandates including the NIH?
A – Yes, Sage Contributor Agreements allow all authors to publish in full compliance with most currently known funding body and institutional open access archiving mandates. Exceptions are covered by the Sage Choice scheme. Please also refer to your rights as author.

13. What if my employer or research funding body requires I submit an addendum to my Contributor Agreement?
If you are required to submit an addendum by your employer or research funding body, please make your request via email (UK) or provide a copy of the addendum to the Production Editor (US), indicating the name of the journal, the title of your paper and the details of the request.

14. Can I publish my article open access in the Sage Choice Scheme?
Sage offers optional, funded open access in a number of journals. To view a current list, link to the further information below. For these journals, you will be invited to select this option on acceptance of your Contribution. More information is available at Sage Choice FAQ. Sage will publish your article under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial license (CC BY-NC) which allows others to re-use the work without permission as long as the work is properly referenced and the use is non-commercial. Authors required to publish under a CC BY licensing by their funder can publish under the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) which allows use of the work for commercial purposes.

15. Do I need to sign a Contributor Agreement if I am publishing my article open access in the Sage Choice Scheme?
If you are opting to make your contribution open access in a journal eligible for the Sage Choice scheme you need to sign a SAGE Choice Publishing Agreement. See Sage Choice for more information.