Each year, we report how our independence allows us to serve the higher education community more effectively, not only through the research we publish, but by the freedom it allows to champion new ideas and create lasting partnerships that support future generations of scholars, instructors, librarians, and students. It’s vital that our people and culture reflect the communities we serve and the places we work, and our latest Independence with Impact Report — which covers the calendar year, 2023 — demonstrates our ongoing work to support diverse talent and foster an inclusive culture. It details our progress to reduce our environmental impact, reiterates our commitment to freedom of expression and enabling researchers to have positive real-world impact. Browse highlights from this year’s report below and read the full report.
Report highlights
People and culture
We donated 35,688 books to 164 partners in 22 countries through Book Aid International.
Diversity, equity, and inclusion
We increased the representation of women on our board of directors from 42% in 2022 to 50% in 2023 and of people of color from 33% in 2022 to 43% in 2023.
Sustainability
We achieved a 50% reduction in our global emissions across our operations (using 2019 as our baseline).
Enabling impact
We launched Sage Policy Profiles, a free tool that enables researchers to easily find, export, visualize, and share their work’s citations in policy.
See what’s in this year's report
People and culture
Our colleagues across the globe contribute to a culture that emphasizes impact, independence, and support. Our publishing drives us to act with purpose, take the initiative, and produce our best work. We respect and care about our colleagues, and each colleague in turn takes responsibility for creating an inclusive and mutually supportive environment.
Diversity, equity, and inclusion
Sage supports diverse talent and fosters an inclusive culture where every staff member can excel and contribute to our mission of building bridges to knowledge. We see diversity as vital to a thriving global society and thus commit to increasing inclusion of underrepresented groups in our publishing and across the industry.
Sustainability
The year 2023 was the world’s warmest on record, as Sage colleagues in India experienced the hottest and driest August on record, colleagues in California were dealing with the first tropical storm to make landfall in 84 years.
In light of this, we remain committed to meeting net zero carbon emissions by 2040 and working closely with key stakeholders, partners, suppliers and the wider publishing industry to reduce our environmental impacts.
Academic freedom
Sage believes that free expression in all forms is a basic human right. Our primary responsibility, and most impactful contribution, is to publish and amplify the unique voices of scholars and educators, representing diverse populations and perspectives and developing new strands of inquiry for the widest possible audience.
Research integrity
Upholding research integrity is central to our publishing. Evolving challenges like the rise of paper mills that fabricate research papers, peer review rings, and other forms of industrialized cheating mean we must continuously refine our processes to prevent bad research from being published and correct the scientific record when needed.
“Our primary function as a publisher is to maintain the integrity of the scholarly record and help maintain reader’s trust in research.”
Adya Misra (she/her), senior research and integrity manager
Enabling impact
While scholarly collaboration is a key part of research, increasing impact requires more than just increasing citations in academic journals. At Sage, we enable impact by improving — or even creating — the pathways from the ivory tower to the public sphere, and by rethinking how ‘success’ in scholarship is defined.
The future of teaching and research
“As an independent company, we are free to think long term and develop products and resources focused on the future needs of higher education rather than quick wins. We do this by working in collaboration with our library and publishing partners to work toward the shared goal of a flourishing higher education system that enables excellent research and student outcomes.”
Karen Phillips (she/her), executive vice president of learning and UK executive lead