IMPORTANT: Manuscripts are evaluated by The Review of Financial Studies on the understanding that they have been submitted solely to it and that they have not been previously published or previously accepted for publication either in whole or in part. This includes prior publication, in whole or in part, in practitioner-oriented outlets. If you need clarification of this policy, please contact the Executive Editor.

DO NOT submit a paper as new that nontrivially incorporates material from a paper of yours that was rejected by the RFS, accepted by the RFS, or is at any stage of review at the RFS, without first obtaining permission to do so from one of the journal's editors or the Executive Editor! We systematically check new submissions against older ones to enforce this policy. Failure to obtain permission prior to doing so may result in sanctions for you and your co-authors. If in doubt, ASK!

You will need to prepare two files: one with the paper's cover page and one with the abstract and body. The cover page should include the paper's title, the name and affiliation of each author, and each author's contact information. Please make sure to include each author's e-mail address as this is the journal's primary means of communication. If an author does not have an e-mail address then, of course, you need not provide one. The first page of the second file should have the paper's title at the top followed by the abstract. The body of the paper should begin on the second page. Please make sure that you remove all identifying information from the paper. In Adobe Acrobat go to the "Document Summary" page by either hitting ctrl-d or by clicking on the "File" menu (typically near the top left hand side of the window) and then "Document Properties" and "Summary." Once you have reached the Document Summary page, erase any identifying information, click on "Ok," and then save the file.

Initial submission can and should ignore the "INSTRUCTIONS TO AUTHORS" listed on the back cover of the journal and on the Oxford University Press web site! Your submission should be formatted to make it as easy to read as possible.

• Papers that do not adhere to all of the initial submission guidelines will not be reviewed until they do. The process of detecting style errors, notifying the authors, and updating the computer files at the RFS can lead to delays of a month or more!
• Abstracts should be 100 words or less.
• The text in the body of the paper must be in an 11 point or LARGER typeface! Double-space the main text. Yes, I know your paper will look shorter if you use a smaller type and one-and-a-half line spacing, but we have to read a LOT of manuscripts. Help us out. Here is how we determine your paper's:
  • Font size for the abstract and the manuscript
    1. Open your PDF file in Adobe Acrobat Professional.
    2. Next go to Tools>Advance Editing>TouchUp Text Tool.
    3. Highlight some text, right click and then click on Properties. The font size should now display. It may differ from what you originally used if Acrobat substituted fonts. If the listed font size is under 11 pt then the RFS is likely to ask for a new version of the PDF file with a font size that appears as 11 pt or larger.
  • Spacing
    1. By inspection. Do the lines "appear" to be double-spaced?
    2. If upon inspection the lines do not appear to be double-spaced, the next step is to count how many there are per page. If a paper has 26 or fewer lines per page it is presumed to be double-spaced. This is a "safe harbor" provision. Any paper that meets this criteria is considered to be double-spaced by the RFS. If you use an 11 point Times Roman typeface and have 1" margins on the top and bottom you will be able to fit 26 lines per page. Please note that using a double-spacing code in LaTeX may not result in 26 lines per page or less; please check your manuscript so you can avoid having your paper returned to you for correction.
• Ensure paragraphs are indented throughout the manuscript.
• Please ensure your paper is high resolution. Low-resoution papers will be returned to the author to correct.
• Please do not use scans of printed documents for your manuscript pdf. Instead, please convert your source files to pdf for uploading in the submission system.
• Please ensure the font size and style in the abstract matches the font size and style in the manuscript. Manuscripts with abstracts written in smaller font will be returned.
• Do NOT use endnotes! Use footnotes instead.
• If you think it will be easier to read your paper with the tables and figures imbedded in the main text, put them there. If not they can appear at the end of the paper. This is your call.
• Do not worry about meeting the style guidelines with respect to table and figure layouts. If your paper is accepted you will have plenty of time to make the necessary changes.
• Please do not include any boilerplate "table of contents" paragraphs at the end of the paper's introduction.
• Make sure the text is written in clear, grammatically-acceptable English. The grammar does not have to be perfect, but it cannot be so poor that it causes the reader pause at frequent intervals. Articles will be desk rejected if the editor believes the writing is so poor that reviewing the paper will put an unfair burden on the system. If you are unsure about the English, hire somebody to look over your paper.
• If none of the authors on the paper received their Ph.D. more than 18 months prior to the submission date the article is eligible for the Young Researcher Prize. During the submission process be sure to note this in the appropriate area.

If you submit a paper that is not double-spaced or indented, or has other severe formatting problems, you will be asked to update the manuscript. This will cause delay in the consideration of your submission!