 Sauer's scholarly research examines how material circumstances from the history of publishing have both hampered and facilitated contemporary open-access publishing ventures.Sauer has argued that U.S. publishing is dominated by interests that are decreasingly interested in publishing books that won't sell a lot of copies greatly reducing academic book choices in the sciences and humanities and leading to increasing commodification of academic knowledges.He has written about professional writing, arguing for the historic increase of openness in a range of workplace communication practices, and the increasing importance of open, database-driven, professional resources.