SAGE APC Waiver and Discount Policy: Who Qualifies and How to Apply

At a glanceAutomatic full waiver for Research4Life Group A and a discount for Group B, by the corresponding author's affiliation. Corresponding author only Applied automatically from the affiliation

Check SAGE's waiver for your author team

Co-authors (where they work)

Only the country is needed: without a journal you get every publisher's result for your author team. Free. No sign-up. Uses the publishers' published rules, last verified 27 October 2026.

Which countries qualify at SAGE

Countries are matched by the author's institutional affiliation, not nationality.

100% waiver 82 countries Research4Life Group A list

Afghanistan, Angola, Bangladesh, Belau, Belize, Benin, Bhutan, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cambodia, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Congo (Brazzaville), Congo (Kinshasa), Cook Islands, Djibouti, Dominica, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Gambia, Ghana, Grenada, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Haiti, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Kiribati, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Lebanon, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Maldives, Mali, Marshall Islands, Mauritania, Micronesia, Mozambique, Myanmar, Nauru, Nepal, Nicaragua, Niger, Niue, North Korea, Palestinian Territory, Papua New Guinea, Rwanda, Saint Helena, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Solomon Islands, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Suriname, Syria, São Tomé and Príncipe, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Timor-Leste, Togo, Tokelau, Tonga, Tuvalu, Uganda, Ukraine, Vanuatu, Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe

50% off 42 countries Research4Life Group B list

Albania, Algeria, Antigua and Barbuda, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Colombia, Cuba, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Fiji, Gabon, Georgia, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Iraq, Jamaica, Jordan, Kosovo, Libya, Mauritius, Moldova, Mongolia, Montenegro, Morocco, Namibia, Nigeria, North Macedonia, Pakistan, Paraguay, Peru, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Seychelles, Sri Lanka, Tunisia, Uzbekistan, Venezuela, Vietnam

Co-authors from other countries

Only the corresponding author's affiliation counts. Co-authors from other countries do not change the waiver.

Corresponding authors at Group A institutions 'will automatically receive a full APC waiver'

How to get the waiver

Automatic; hardship requests to openaccess@sagepub.com.

Programmes: Research4Life (Group A 100%, Group B 50%); EIFL; ONOS.

Official sources: sagepub.com ↗

SAGE journals on ScholarsColab

Each journal page shows its indexing, impact factor, review time, reviewer comments and this waiver.

Oxford University PressCambridge University PressPLOSCopernicus PublicationsMIT PressThiemeACMScience Advances (AAAS)American Society for MicrobiologyMicrobiology SocietyKeAiUniversity of California Press

Schemes used: Research4Life, EIFL agreements, Discretionary hardship waivers. All publishers and schemes →

Frequently asked questions

Does SAGE offer APC waivers?

Automatic full waiver for Research4Life Group A and a discount for Group B, by the corresponding author's affiliation. Applied automatically from the affiliation.

Who gets a full APC waiver at SAGE?

Authors affiliated in 82 countries qualify for a 100% waiver. Only the corresponding author's affiliation counts. Co-authors from other countries do not change the waiver.

Does the SAGE waiver apply if my co-authors are from other countries?

Only the corresponding author's affiliation counts. Co-authors from other countries do not change the waiver.

How do I apply for an APC waiver at SAGE?

Automatic; hardship requests to openaccess@sagepub.com.

Before you submit

Source, method and date. Each publisher's rule was read from its official waiver page (linked on every row) and the country lists from Research4Life, EIFL, the World Bank income classification and the publishers' own lists. Last verified: 27 October 2026. Policies change, Research4Life updates its lists every January and the World Bank every July, and some waivers are temporary or decided case by case. The checker reads the published rules; it cannot promise a waiver. Confirm on the publisher's page before you submit. ScholarsColab is not affiliated with any publisher listed here; logos are trademarks of their owners, shown only to name the publishers whose rules we read.

Confidence of this entry: High.