Publishing Policies

On the following pages, you may find information about Sage's Publishing Policies:

• Contributor Agreement
• Copyright and Permissions
• Author e-prints
• Sage corrections and retractions policy
• Declaration of Conflicting Interests Policy
• Funding Acknowledgements
• Prior Publication
• Commentaries, Responses and Rejoinders
• Complaints and Appeals Procedure
• ChatGPT and Generative AI
• License Information for CHORUS
• Editorial Dignity at Work policy
• Editorial Independence at Sage
• Global research ethics and inclusion
• Page and Publication Charges
• Covid-19 Research Policy

Sage takes issues of copyright infringement, plagiarism or other breaches of best practice in publication very seriously. We seek to protect the rights of our authors and we always investigate claims of plagiarism or misuse of published articles. Equally, we seek to protect the reputation of the journal against malpractice. Submitted articles may be checked with duplication-checking software. Where an article, for example, is found to have plagiarised other work or included third-party copyright material without permission or with insufficient acknowledgement, or where the authorship of the article is contested, we reserve the right to take action including, but not limited to: publishing an erratum or corrigendum (correction); retracting the article; taking up the matter with the head of department or dean of the author's institution and/or relevant academic bodies or societies; or taking appropriate legal action.

The author should disclose any prior distribution and/or publication of any portion of the material to the Editor for the Editor’s consideration and ensure that appropriate attribution to the prior distribution and/or publication of the material is included.

In addition, Sage does not tolerate fraudulent activities, including manipulating the peer review process and the use of submission or review farms (not legitimate third-party submission agencies). Where Sage has strong suspicions or evidence of such activities, unpublished contributions will be automatically disqualified from further consideration in the journal. In the event that there is evidence of such activity on a published paper,

Sage will organise for the paper to be re-reviewed, in accordance with guidance from the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). An editorial decision will be made based on the re-reviews and this may result in correcting the academic record, such as a correction notice, expression of concern or a retraction. In addition, Sage reserves the right to inform the relevant institutions or affiliations.