Electronic Submission Information 

All papers must be submitted electronically. Click here to enter the submission site.

Acceptable formats for electronic submission include Adobe Acrobat, Microsoft Word, and RTF. In preparing Acrobat files, make sure that all fonts are embedded, and it is recommended that the document be created using Distiller.

Fees for submission are $70.00 for AFA members and $140.00 for nonmembers.

Submission fees will be paid via credit card (Visa, MasterCard or American Express) as part of the submission procedure.

The following style instructions should be followed in manuscripts submitted for review in the Journal of Finance. If the paper is accepted, there is another set of instructions.

1. All submitted manuscripts must be original work that is not under submission at another journal or under consideration for publication in another form, such as a monograph or chapter of a book. Authors of submitted papers are obligated not to submit their paper for publication elsewhere until an editorial decision is rendered on their submission. Further, authors of accepted papers are prohibited from publishing the results in other publications that appear before the paper is published in the Journal unless they receive approval for doing so from the editor.

2. A resubmission of a manuscript that was previously rejected by the Journal of Finance will be immediately desk rejected.

3. The text of the manuscript should be prepared in 12pt type with 1 inch margins and 1.5 inch top/bottom margins. The text should be double spaced.

4. Footnotes should appear at the bottom of the page on which they are referenced (that is, they should not be endnotes that appear at the end of the document). They should be single spaced. A smaller font size is acceptable but not required.

5.Tables must be numbered with Roman numerals. Please check that your text contains a reference to each table. Tables can appear either embedded in the manuscript or at the end of the manuscript. If the tables follow the text, please make an indication in the body of the text as to where the tables should be included. Tables can be single spaced and the font size should not be smaller than 8pt. Each table must have a title followed by a descriptive legend. Authors must check tables to be sure that the title, column headings, captions, etc., are clear and to the point. Often it is best to label columns or rows using both English and the symbol, e.g.  "Coefficient of risk aversion (\gamma)".  Readers should be able to substantially understand what is going on in the table without going back and forth to the text. It is also not necessary to repetitively define every variable in every table. You can refer to, e.g., "variables are defined in Table I."

6. Figures must be numbered with Arabic numerals.  Figures can appear either embedded in the manuscript or at the end of the manuscript. Each figure must have a title followed by a descriptive legend which can be single spaced.. Figures must be self-contained. It is best to use English descriptions as well as symbols, e.g. "Market to book value (M/B)". Also, if possible, labels can be placed directly in the figure with arrows from the label to the line. This is often easier for the reader than a legend box placed to the right of the figure.

7. All but very short mathematical expressions should be displayed on a separate line and centered. Equations must be numbered consecutively on the right margin, using Arabic numerals in parentheses.  Do not use a dot over a variable to denote time derivative; only D operator (\partial) notations are acceptable.

8. References appear at the end of the paper. They can be single spaced and not smaller than 10pt font size. References to publications in the text should appear as follows: "Jensen and Meckling (1976) report that..." or "(Jensen and Meckling (1976))." At the end of the manuscript, the complete list of references should be as follows:

For monographs:
Fama, Eugene F., and Merton H. Miller, 1972. The Theory of Finance (Dryden Press, Hinsdale, IL.).

For contributions to collective works:
Grossman, Sanford J., and Oliver D. Hart, 1982, Corporate financial structure and managerial incentives, in John J. McCall, ed.: The Economics of Information and Uncertainty (University of Chicago Press).

For periodicals:
Jensen, Michael C., and William H. Meckling, 1976, Theory of the firm: Managerial behavior, agency costs and ownership structure, Journal of Financial Economics 3, 305-360.

9. The cover page shall contain the title of the manuscript, and an abstract of not more than 100 words. The title page should not include the names of the authors, their affiliations, or any other identifying information. That information must be input separately as part of the on-line submission.

10. An abstract, of no more than 100 words, must be entered or pasted into a separate text box as part of the on-line submission.

11. The introductory section must have no heading or number. Subsequent headings should be given Roman numerals. Subsection headings should be lettered A, B, C, etc.

12. The article should end with a nontechnical summary statement of the main conclusions. Lengthy mathematical proofs and very extensive detailed tables should be placed in an appendix or omitted entirely. The author should make every effort to explain the meaning of mathematical proofs.

13. Submissions can include a Supplementary Appendix which might include extra tables, extra figures, data description, proofs. If the paper is accepted, part of the Supplemental Appendix will appear as an on-line supplement to the paper on www.afajof.org.

14. Papers that do not follow these guidelines will be returned to the authors by the Editorial Assistant.