Report of the Editor of The Journal of Finance for the Year 2019

• Author: STEFAN NAGEL
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/jofi.12881
• Published date: 01 April 2020
• Date: 01 April 2020

THE JOURNAL OF FINANCE •VOL. LXXV, NO. 2 •APRIL 2020

Report of the Editor of The Journal of Finance

for the Year 2019

STEFAN NAGEL, EDITOR

July 2019 marked the start of our second three-year term as Editors of The

Journal of Finance. I am thrilled that our entire team, with Co-Editors Philip

Bond, Amit Seru, and Wei Xiong, continues to serve the Journal. It is a privilege

to work with such a distinguished group of scholars in service of the profession.

The year 2019 was a busy year at the Journal. Table Idetails the number

and timing of submissions received throughout the year. Wereceived 1,195 sub-

missions, of which 1,083 were new manuscripts and 112 were resubmissions.

The number of new submissions rose by about 5% compared with 2018, when

it was 1,030.

Turnaround remains good with little change from previous years. As can be

seen in Table II, in 2018 70.1% of editorial decisions took less than 70 days.

The median turnaround time in 2019 of 48 days is slightly lower than in 2018

(49 days). We further managed to reduce to 9.4% the share of decisions that took

over 100 days (compared with 10.5% in 2018). Figure 1compares turnaround

over the 2015 to 2019 period.

In cases where we cannot see a reasonable chance that a submitted paper

could eventually clear the bar for publication in the Journal, we aim to spare

authors a lengthy review process with a predictable negative outcome. For

this reason, we desk-reject about a third of new submissions. In 2019, the

desk rejection rate of 34% was almost unchanged compared with the previous

year (33%). That the desk rejection rate stayed roughly unchanged despite

the 5% increase in new submissions reflects the generally high quality of the

submissions we received in 2019.

Table III provides information on editorial decisions. The total number of

revise-and-resubmits fell in 2019 to 118 (from 141 in 2018), but the number

of acceptances rose to 73 (from 55 in 2018). The increase in the number of

accepted papers in 2019 was partly a consequence of the very high number of

revise-and-resubmits in 2018.

Focusing on initial submissions, the probability of an Editor asking for a

revision or granting acceptance after one round of review fell to 7.4% in 2019

compared with 9.5% in 2018. While this number fluctuates from year to year,

it is at the lower end of the range that we anticipate for the coming years.

To maintain the Journal’s position as the premier outlet in the field of fi-

nance, our editorial team is determined to ensure an efficient review process

for authors. The number of rounds until acceptance is a particularly important

metric in this regard. As in previous years, we have made an effort to limit

DOI: 10.1111/jofi.12881

C2020 the American Finance Association

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1158 The Journal of Finance R

Tabl e I

Submission and Resubmission Timing

2019 2018

Month Submissions Resubmissions Total Month Submissions Resubmissions Total

Jan. 71 12 83 Jan. 76 8 84

Feb. 108 9 117 Feb. 73 8 81

Mar. 82 10 92 Mar. 94 6 100

April 94 15 109 April 93 6 99

May 90 4 94 May 94 9 103

June 85 9 94 June 82 11 93

July 97 9 106 July 86 12 98

Aug. 87 11 98 Aug. 96 19 115

Sept. 97 11 108 Sept. 87 10 97

Oct. 109 4 113 Oct. 91 16 107

Nov. 71 4 75 Nov. 80 6 86

Dec. 92 14 106 Dec. 81 7 88

Total 1,083 112 1,195 Total 1,030 136 1,166

Tabl e II

Turnaround Statistics

2019 2018

Processing Time Number Cumulative % Processing Time Number Cumulative %

less than 20 days 374 30.4% less than 20 days 335 29.7%

20-29 days 45 34.1% 20-29 days 41 33.3%

30-39 days 98 42.1% 30-39 days 71 39.6%

40-49 days 121 51.9% 40-49 days 136 51.6%

50-59 days 116 61.4% 50-59 days 99 60.4%

60-69 days 107 70.1% 60-69 days 102 69.4%

70-79 days 84 76.9% 70-79 days 81 76.6%

80-89 days 83 83.6% 80-89 days 68 82.6%

90-99 days 86 90.6% 90-99 days 77 89.5%

100 or more days 115 100.0% 100 or more days 119 100.0%

Total 1,229 Total 1,129

Median turnaround 48 Median turnaround 49

Average turnaround 49 Average turnaround 51

the number of revisions until acceptance. As Figure 2shows, among papers

accepted for publication in 2019, 50% were accepted after at most one revision,

which is down from 65% in 2018 but still within the relatively high range that

we have seen since 2016. Importantly, almost all papers (97%) were accepted

after at most two revisions.

These numbers are particularly remarkable in light of the fact that we dis-

continued the use of “reject-and-resubmit” editorial decisions at the beginning

of our term in July 2016. This means that a paper recorded as accepted after

at most one revision was indeed subject to only one revision (and not a second