Commentaries, critiques and responses

Some Sage journals publish short commentaries, letters to the editor or critiques (from now on referred to as critiques) on published articles to voice differences of opinion, perspectives on a particular topic. These are generally limited to one commentary or critique research published in a Sage journal or an article published elsewhere. Such contributions may have a restricted word count. Please view the relevant journal’s submission guidelines for more information.

For transparency and fairness, Sage recommends that all such critiques are evaluated by the journal editor for content, relevance, and accuracy. If this type of submission contains primary research data collected by the authors, we recommend this is peer reviewed by subject experts selected by the journal editor. If serious errors or omissions are highlighted in a Sage publication, by the authors of the critique, please alert your journal manager in the first instance, so that Sage may take appropriate action on the original article in line with our Corrections and Retractions Policy.

In accordance with the guidance issued by COPE, it is recommended that authors of the criticised article are allowed the opportunity to respond to the critique prior to its publication. This response may be published, should the authors and editors agree. Sage strongly recommends consistency in process such that critiques and their responses should undergo the same level of scrutiny by the editor and any reviewers. If the original article has been published elsewhere, Sage recommends that the original journal editor and author are made aware of the concerns raised in the critique and that this is noted when the critique is published. Journal Editors may choose to share the author response with the authors of the critique, in order to publish a rejoinder which should also undergo the same process as the original critique.

For example: a commentary on a published article is submitted to the journal, subject to peer review; the commentary is shared with the authors who are invited to submit a response, subject to peer review; the author response may be shared with the commentator, who is invited to submit a rejoinder, subject to peer review; the rejoinder is shared with the authors of the published article. If accepted for publication, the commentary, author response and rejoinder are published simultaneously in the journal and no further correspondence is considered for publication.