SAGE Publications

["Richman, Carol" <Carol.Richman@sagepub.com>]

SAGE Publications would like to further clarify our position with regard
to the SAGE online journals program:

The following is a summary of facts relating to Sage's recent decision
with respect to future participation in the ProQuest Information and
Learning databases and the EBSCOhost database.

1. SAGE's database licensing contracts with both ProQuest and EBSCO expire
at the end of 2002, and we have informed both firms that we will not renew
these agreements.  We have for several years been concerned about the
impact of database aggregations on our subscription business, and recent
research confirmed that we should plan now to discontinue participating in
them.  Because of this long held concern, our agreements with ProQuest and
EBSCO have for several years been one-year, renewable contracts.

2. Although we have notified both firms of our election not to renew, our
agreements allow both firms to continue to sell our content until the end
of 2002, and to fulfill any active subscriptions until the end of 2003. In
short, Sage has taken no action that has any immediate effect on access to
its content.

3. ProQuest is honoring the intent of Sage's agreement with them, and has
announced that Sage journals will continue to be available in the ProQuest
databases through 2003.  ProQuest has also announced that it will continue
to index and abstract Sage journals beyond December 2003, in recognition
of the journals' importance in their respective subject areas.

4. EBSCO has placed information on its Website indicating that Sage
journals are "dropped" from EBSCOhost products. We have advised EBSCO's
senior management of our concerns with respect to this information and
related communications with our customers, and have been advised in
response that they are researching the facts surrounding the concerns we
have expressed.

5. As Sage has already assured its customers, electronic access to Sage
journals will continue via our existing arrangements with Ingenta,
Swets-Blackwell, Divine, Hans Huber, Minerva, OCLC, HighWire, and EBSCO
Online.  Thus, institutions subscribing to Sage journals will continue to
have electronic access, as we recognize that the availability of
electronic content is critical to the academic community.

6. Additionally, we have recently announced an exciting new online product
for Sage journals, The Sage Full-Text Collections, to be released in
January 2003.  The Collections will be subject-specific databases in the
areas of Communication Studies, Criminology, Sociology, and Politics and
International Relations.  Each Collection will contain the full text of
journals we publish in that discipline, including a current subscription
and up to 20 years of back files with full linking backward and forward.
Each Collection will be hosted on a platform enabling key word search
functionality, browsing functionality, and reference and citation linking
capability. The Collections are designed to be dynamic research tools for
students and faculty members in the social sciences.  Sage currently plans
to release new Collections in new disciplines each year.

7. Sage has not withdrawn its content from the ProQuest or EBSCO databases
at this time.  Our content will not, however, be available in those
databases beyond the end of 2003.

For further information, please contact:

Carol Richman
Director of Licensing & Electronic Publishing
SAGE Publications
410-327-6808
carol.richman@sagepub.com
www.sagepub.com