Sage history timeline (original) (raw)
1965
1965: 1965
Sara Miller founds Sage
Sara Miller, just about to turn 24, incorporates a new academic publishing company in New York City — Sage Publications, Inc.
Developing social science
Sage launches its first journal
The new company's first action is to launch a journal — Urban Affairs Quarterly — in a new but socially vital field. This establishes a pattern of Sage supporting or even helping create new avenues of scholarship. The new journal's founding editor is Sara’s former Queens College professor, Marilyn Gittell.
Developing social science
Sage's first acquisition in behavioral science
The new company’s second journal is an acquisition — the 8-year-old journal American Behavioral Scientist, signposting the new company's focus on the social and behavioral sciences.
1966
1966: 1966
Sage moves to California
After having been founded in New York City, the nascent company relocates to Beverly Hills, California.
Sara and George marry
Sara marries her publishing mentor George McCune. Sage's name is itself a portmanteau of their names — SAra and GEorge.
1970
1970: 1970
developing social science
Sage starts publishing in field of Black studies
With UCLA professor Molefi Kete Asante as editor, Sage launches the Journal of Black Studies — one of the first academic journals by a mainstream publisher ever in ethnic studies.
1971
1971: 1971
Sage expands with office in London
Sage begins a joint venture in the United Kingdom, which sees the new company step outside of the United States and launch Sage Publications, Ltd., in London.
1975
1975: 1975
Developing research methods
Sage supports burgeoning field of evaluation
Taking a commercial leap of faith, Sage publishes Elmer Struening and Marcia Guttentag's Handbook of Evaluation Research, again laying down a significant marker in a nascent field. In 1988, Sara would receive the American Evaluation Association’s Special Award for Distinguished Contributions to the field.
1976
1976: 1976
Developing research methods
Little Green Books cement Sage as methods master
Sage releases the first in its Quantitative Applications in the Social Sciences series, booklet-sized how-to guides with green covers. Known as "Little Green Books," the series has become an iconic ambassador for the company, and nearing 200 titles, continues to be published.
Developing research methods
Focusing attention on qualitative approaches
Following the smash success of the "Little Green Books," Sage launches a similar series — Qualitative Research Methods. With baby blue covers, they are known as the "Little Blue Books."
1981
1981: 1981
Sage opens an office in India
Sage incorporates Sage Publications India Pvt. Ltd., in New Delhi, bringing on public intellectual Tejeshwar Singh to help address the burgeoning market for social science scholarship in India.
1986
1986: 1986
Sage moves headquarters
After two decades in Beverly Hills, Sage moves its corporate headquarters north to the city of Thousand Oaks, California.
1989
1989: 1989
Championing diversity and free expression
Journal launch a signal moment in gender studies
Making a big move into the nascent field, Sage begins publishing the then 2-year-old journal Gender & Society in association with Sociologists for Women in Society.
Browse the Gender & Society journal
1990
1990: 1990
Supporting philanthropy
Giving a focus to hometown philanthropy, Sara and George start the McCune Foundation to support social justice initiatives on California's Central Coast.
Visit the McCune Foundation website
Creating pedagogic pathways
Broadening support of education with Corwin Press
Focusing on selling books to working educators in the kindergarten to high school market that bridge educational research and theory into practice, the imprint Corwin Press is launched by then-President David McCune and Gracia Alkema. Its first book will be Bringing Out the Best in Teachers by Joseph Blase and Peggy C. Kirby.
1991
1991: 1991
Creating pedagogic pathways
Launching a textbook program for undergrads
With the aim of expanding the higher education markets it serves, the company starts a new book imprint, Pine Forge Press, focus on serving undergrads. The effort is so successful that its approach is adapted throughout Sage's book publishing, and the imprint is eventually folded into Sage as a whole.
1995
1995: 1995
Expanding the disciplinary boundaries of what we publish
Sage begins publishing Health Education Quarterly with the Society for Public Health Education, broadening the company's journals program into health fields.
1997
1997: 1997
Building business and management
Taking a lead in leadership studies
One of Sage's most successful authors, communications scholar Peter Northouse, sees his Leadership: Theory and Practice first published. It will become a best-selling book on leadership theory and the best-selling Sage text to date.
Leadership: Theory and Practice - Northouse
1998
1998: 1998
Sage Journals content goes digital
The first content from Sage Journals starts to become available online.
Developing research methods
Signaling a new era in qualitative methodology books
Cementing Sage's dominance in research methods for social and behavioral science, John Creswell's landmark Qualitative Inquiry and Research Design is released to immediate acclaim. The book, now in its fifth edition and co-authored with Cheryl Poth, helps in bridging a divide in the academy between qualitative and quantitative methods.
Qualitative Inquiry and Research Design
BUILDING BUSINESS AND MANAGEMENT
Focusing on management research methodology
In a significant statement on research methods for the business and management sphere, Sage starts publishing Organizational Research Methods on behalf of the Research Methods Division of the Academy of Management. Sage's presence in business and management education will expand dramatically in the coming years.
2000
2000: 2000
DEVELOPING RESEARCH METHODS
Neil Salkind democratizes statistics
American child development psychologist Neil Salkind, whose academic writing endeared him to generations of students struggling with statistics, arrives with the text Statistics for People Who (Think They) Hate Statistics.
Developing research methods
Andy Field offers new methods for methods
British quantitative methodologist Andy Field's fun approach to teaching modern research methods is well received with the publication of his Discovering Statistics Using SPSS for Windows.
2001
2001: 2001
Sage builds stake in engineering
Sage purchases 20 journals and seven newsletters from Technomic, a major increase in our STM publishing with titles addressing environmental sciences, food science, materials science, and pharmaceutical sciences.
2005
2005: 2005
Developing research methods
Sage pioneers mixed methods
In another publishing decision that helps define a nascent field, Sage launches the Journal of Mixed Methods Research, with John Creswell and Abbas Tashakkori as founding editors.
Journal of Mixed Methods Research
2006
2006: 2006
Sage opens Singapore office
Sage Asia-Pacific opens in Singapore with subsidiary offices in Beijing and Shanghai. The office's initial focus is on sales for East Asia and Australasia. The grand opening the next year is themed "Learning Has No Borders."
Growing Sage's presence in medicine
In the decade from 2000 to 2010, we focused on growing our portfolio of medical journals by purchase, lease, and launch. In that decade, Sage's medical program grew from 25 science, technical and medicine (STM) titles in 2000 to 139 in 2010. In 2003 we started publishing the journals of the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine, and as of our 60th year we publish 203 journals for STM societies. In 2006, for example, this was supported with the purchase of 33 journals published by Hodder Arnold. In 2008, we launched our Therapeutic Advances series of clinical journals.
2007
2007: 2007
Developing social science
Addressing needs of scholarly societies
Sage starts publishing the journals of the American Educational Research Association, continuing a long-tradition of service to learned and scholarly societies that would expand further in 2010 with the journals of the Association for Psychological Science and American Sociological Association. These partnerships date well back in Sage's history, such as publishing The ANNALS of the American Association of Political and Social Science since 1981, crossing disciplines and continents (Britain's Political Studies Association in 2016). As of 2025, Sage publishes 640 journals for 488 societies.
2008
2008: 2008
Developing social science
Sage expands in political science with the acquisition of CQ Press
In what is Sage's largest acquisition to date, Sage acquires the book publishing unit of the venerable CQ Press (formerly Congressional Quarterly), vastly expanding the company's resources in American government and politics and giving Sage a Washington, D.C. presence.
2010
2010: 2010
Buttressing our engineering portfolio
Sage acquires The Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, a venerable suite of publications whose first journal was published by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, or IMechE, in 1847. The deal makes Sage a major player in the field of mechanical engineering.
Institution of Mechanical Engineers
Championing diversity and free expression
Taking a stand on freedom of expression
Sage begins publishing the magazine Index on Censorship, which started publishing in 1972 as a response to show trials then taking place in Moscow. The magazine makes public the circumstances of those who are silenced in their own countries, wherever that may be, and publishes their work.
Developing research methods
Connecting our research methods online
Sage wraps its arms around its exceptional research methods offerings and releases them through an online platform known as Sage Research Methods. At launch it contained hundreds of thousands of pages of Sage’s book, journal, and reference content, and since then has added more of that material as well as research methods cases, video, and datasets.
Creating Pedagogic Pathways
Corwin launches consulting service
Corwin launches its consulting services, bringing the Corwin experience directly to the school district level.
2011
2011: 2011
Creating Pedagogic Pathways
More practical scholarship for educators
Acquiring the 12-year-old British company Learning Matters, Sage picks up another organization offering practical scholarship aimed at practitioners.
Developing social science
Launching the first-ever open access "mega-journal" in the social sciences
As an independent company, Sage has the ability to take a long-term view and so despite government funding challenges in the social sciences, decides to create the first social science “mega-journal” as a premier destination for quality OA research in the humanities, social, and behavioral sciences. Sage Open is the first-ever open-access "mega-journal" focusing on the social and behavioral sciences.
Developing Social Science
A convening place for the social and behavioral science community
Buttressing its position as a necessary participant in debates about social and behavioral science issues, Sage launches the free website Social Science Space to address issues from funding to ethics, policy to impact and foster critical enquiry in these areas. Appealing to academics, chief funders, societies, think tanks, policy makers, and government, the platform is also host to the acclaimed Social Science Bites podcast series.
2012
2012: 2012
Sage acquires Adam Matthew
Sage acquires Adam Matthew (now known as AM), a UK-based publisher of primary sources material of particular value to researchers and librarians. As the AM mission statement reads: "We believe that at the heart of education is the freedom to think critically. Harnessing the latest technologies, we reimagine primary sources to empower current and future generations to challenge, analyse and debate. Our values, to be bold, distinctive, accountable and honest, steer how we behave."
A major move in medicine
Sage takes over the Royal Society of Medicine's journals portfolio, consisting of 28 titles within the medical field. This includes the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, one of the few general medical journals in existence, with a publishing history spanning over 200 years.
2013
2013: 2013
Sage expands China presence
Sage's office in Beijing becomes a wholly owned enterprise in China — Sage Consulting (Beijing) Co. Ltd.
2015
2015: 2015
Celebrating 50 years
The company marks its first half century with celebrations around the world for its roughly 1,450 employees publishing almost a thousand journals and hundreds of new titles each year.
Creating pedagogic pathways
Sage launches Sage Video
Though Sage had produced individual videos for specific products, Sage Video saw an independent unit producing collections of case studies, tutorials, interviews, and in-practice instructions. The initial collections were in education, media and communications, and counseling and psychotherapy.
2016
2016: 2016
Sage reaches 1,000 journals published
Building business and management
Launch of Business Cases
Heralding what was to become a major expansion into the disciplines around business and management, Sage Business Cases was the first all-digital comprehensive business case study collection for the academic library market. Publishing a new significant collection every year, the series now has more than 6,000 cases and more than 400 global customers. Sage Business, meanwhile, includes a wide range of approaches from traditional print offerings to products addressing business foundations, ethics, professional skills, and data analysis.
2017
2017: 2017
Creating pedagogic pathways
Launch of online courses begins with data
Expanding Sage's footprint into the world of online learning, Sage Campus launches with a suite of courses in data science aimed at social and behavioral scientists.
2018
2018: 2018
Sage fires up library services
Moving into the library services market, Sage acquires technology company Talis and its enterprise teaching and learning platform known as Talis Aspire, and a month later the Netherlands-based software provider Lean Library.
Creating Pedagogic Pathways
Visible Learning joins Corwin fold
Corwin acquires Visible Learning, the world's largest evidence base on what works best for raising student achievement.
Cultivating critical thinking
Critical thinking online course launches
Sage launches its Critical Thinking online course, based on the bestselling textbook by Tom Chatfield. Sage will continue to develop critical thinking content and promote the uptake of critical thinking in society as a whole as an antidote to the explosion of mis- and disinformation in the political and public spheres.
2020
2020: 2020
Creating pedagogic pathways
Connecting students and studies digitally via Sage Vantage
Bringing together various strands of modern learning and teaching, Sage debuts Sage Vantage, a digital course platform that offers instructors tools such as course set up, integration into institutional learning management systems, and auto-grading, while providing students access to interactive activities, chapter tests, and directional feedback.
Creating pedagogic pathways
Covid finds Corwin ready to serve
During the COVID-19 pandemic, an existing title from Corwin - the Distance Learning Playbook — proves to be a key component to the asynchronous learning required by social distancing. The title becomes the all-time bestseller, to date, from Corwin.
2021
2021: 2021
Sara ensures Sage's independence forever
Keeping a promise she and George had made years before, Sara Miller McCune moves her majority stake in Sage to an independent trust with a group of educational institutions as beneficial owners. The trust will run Sage after Sara dies.
Sara passes control of the company to the Sage-SMM Trust
2023
2023: 2023
Expanding in health and computer science
Sage acquires IOS Press, an independent publisher founded in Amsterdam in 1987 specializing in health, life, and computer sciences, including artificial intelligence. With this move, Sage acquires nearly 100 journals and a front list of 70+ books each year.
Developing social science
Redefining research impact
Sage and Overton release the free tool Sage Policy Profiles to allow scholars to discover and share their research is used in policy documents. The tool is freely accessible via the Social Science Space website.
Creating pedagogic pathways
Broadening the ecosystem of learning resources
With the acquisition of Epigeum, a provider of peer-reviewed online courses, Sage expands its footprint in online courses first seen with the launch of Sage Campus.
Building business and management
Advancing in business and management
Solidifying our presence in business and management, Sage acquires both Hubro Education, a Norwegian-based developer of business simulations, as well as the 21 titles offered by the 11-year-old company Chicago Business Press.
2024
2024: 2024
Independent medical and life sciences publisher Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. joins Sage
In the largest of a spate of acquisitions at the end of the year, Sage acquires fellow independent publisher Mary Anne Liebert, Inc., Liebert publishes more than 100 journals in the fields of biotechnology and the life sciences and operates two business-to-business brands in those areas.
Building business and management
Expanding in financial analysis and accounting
Further expanding its presence in the business and management fields, Sage acquires US-based Cambridge Business Publishers, a 20-year-old company which provides textbooks and technology focused on the fields of accounting and financial analysis.
Creating pedagogic pathways
Documentary acquisition emphasizes social good
Sage acquires GOOD DOCS LLC, a film distribution company focusing on documentaries that do good in the world with an eye toward bringing powerful storytelling into the classroom.
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2025
2025: 2025
Sage celebrates 60 years
Growing from a small office in the New York City publishing district into an international academic powerhouse, Sage celebrates its sixth complete decade as an independent publisher free to act in the best interests of the scholarly community and society as a whole.
IPG names Sage Academic Publisher of the Year
The Independent Publishers Guild, specifically citing Sage's commitment to the social and behavioral sciences, names Sage its ProQuest Academic and Professional Publisher of the Year at the Independent Publishing Awards.
