Analysis based on AOTA's July 1, 2026 AJOT platform announcement, AOTA's AJOT publication page, the Sage Journals AJOT site, and AOTA's June 9, 2026 editor-in-chief announcement.
AJOT has a new online home, and the practical takeaway is simple: use the access window while it is open. AOTA says the American Journal of Occupational Therapy moved to Sage Journals on July 1, 2026, and that Sage is making AJOT content openly available through August 31, 2026. That gives clinicians, students, faculty, journal clubs, and fieldwork sites a short stretch of time to read full articles, build useful reading lists, and pull research into decisions they already have to make.
In brief
- AOTA says AJOT moved to Sage Journals on July 1, 2026, while remaining AOTA's official peer-reviewed research journal.
- AOTA says Sage is making AJOT content openly available through August 31, 2026.
- The best use of the window is targeted: choose articles tied to current patients, fieldwork teaching, documentation questions, program coursework, or journal club plans.
Start with the deadline
The platform change matters because it comes with time-limited access. AOTA says Sage will make AJOT content openly available through August 31, 2026. For nonmembers, smaller clinics, fieldwork sites, adjunct faculty, and students between institutional access points, that is the part worth acting on.
The useful move is to search with a purpose. A pediatric clinic might look for articles on family routines, sensory participation, or school carryover. A home health team might pull work on caregiver training, discharge planning, falls, or function in the home. A hand therapy or neuro team will need a different list.
Open access can disappear from the workflow as quickly as it appears. Pick the questions first, then save citations and links in a place the team will actually use.
AJOT is still the profession's research journal
AOTA describes AJOT as its official peer-reviewed research journal. In the platform announcement, AOTA says the journal's mission remains the same and that AOTA and AJOT's editorial leadership will continue editorial oversight. Authors will still submit manuscripts through ScholarOne.
For readers, the new site may make searching and browsing easier. That is useful, but the real value still comes from reading carefully. A good article should change a question, sharpen a plan, improve a measurement choice, or make the limits of an intervention clearer.
AOTA's AJOT page points readers to regular issues, supplements, current research, practice guidelines, official documents, and historical material. The access window is a good moment to rebuild that reference shelf instead of treating AJOT as a place to visit only when a link is assigned.
Use discovery carefully
AOTA says AJOT now sits on Sage alongside occupational therapy journals from several countries, making related research easier to find. That can help readers move beyond a single article when a topic deserves a broader look.
Discovery still needs judgment. A study from another country or health system may not match a U.S. payer rule, school district, state practice act, or documentation requirement. It can still help with clinical reasoning, outcome selection, caregiver coaching, or program design.
A practical rule: read one article that speaks directly to a current decision, then one nearby article that widens the frame. That keeps searching from becoming a folder of saved links no one opens again.
What clinicians should pull first
Clinicians should begin with decisions already on the desk: intervention choice, outcome measurement, caregiver training, documentation of skilled need, participation goals, or discharge planning. An article is worth the time when it can improve one of those decisions.
For a busy practice, a four-article packet is enough: one recent research article, one review or guideline-adjacent article, one article tied to outcomes or documentation, and one article outside the team's usual setting. End the packet with a short note: what will we try, stop, measure, or explain differently?
Students and new graduates should read for method as well as conclusions. Notice how authors define occupation, choose outcomes, describe dose, handle eligibility, and name limits. That habit will travel farther than memorizing the last paragraph of a paper.
Faculty and fieldwork sites have a deadline
OT and OTA programs can use the open period to lower the barrier for students who are still learning how to read research. Faculty can assign full articles without asking every learner to solve an access problem first. Fieldwork educators can choose one article that matches the site and use it during supervision.
Applicants can use the moment too. When a program says it teaches evidence-based practice, ask what students read and how those readings show up in labs, fieldwork preparation, capstone work, and documentation habits.
After August 31, access may again depend on membership, institutional subscriptions, or article purchase. Build the citation list and teaching notes now, while the full text is easier to reach.
AJOT is also entering a new editorial chapter
The platform move coincides with a leadership change. AOTA announced that Timothy J. Wolf, OTD, PhD, OTR/L, FAOTA, became AJOT's editor-in-chief effective July 1, 2026, as the journal marks its eightieth year of publication.
That does not require readers to predict the journal's direction. It does make the timing worth noticing: AJOT has a new editor-in-chief and a new publishing platform at the same time.
The profession gets the most from that transition when readers bring standards to the work. Use the journal, question the evidence, cite it accurately, and bring the useful parts back to the occupations people are trying to do.