Review of Finance Submission
Use this before uploading through Editorial Express (editorialexpress.com/rof). RoF is the
official journal of the European Finance Association (EFA), published by Oxford University
Press. Re-verify volatile figures on the official pages before paying or submitting.
Preflight
- Choose the track and verify the current fee and tiered refund schedule (re-verified
2026-06-22 on revfin.org; re-verify before paying). Regular submission is EUR 350 (EUR 300
for EFA members); Fast-Track first submission is EUR 900 (resubmission EUR 500) and targets
an editorial decision within 14 days of valid payment. Refund amounts depend on decision
type/timing: regular desk rejection EUR 150 / EUR 100 for members, EUR 175 / EUR 150
(members) if a decision takes over 120 days; Fast-Track refunds EUR 600 (desk rejection),
EUR 550 (decision > 14 days), EUR 725 (decision > 120 days).
- Confirm the manuscript stays within the hard 60-page total cap, including appendices,
bibliography, figures, and tables.
- Keep the abstract within 150 words (count it).
- Confirm formatting: at least 12-point font, at least 1.5 line spacing, 1-inch side and
1.5-inch top/bottom margins, submitted as a PDF with the first page numbered page 1.
- Remove author-identifying references, acknowledgements, grants, repository links, and file
metadata for double-blind review.
- Check Chicago-style citations and references.
- Prepare cover-letter disclosures: confirm the paper is not under simultaneous review
elsewhere and disclose any prior RoF rejection — either omission triggers desk rejection
and a two-year submission ban. Request any code-sharing exception here, at initial
submission, since it cannot be added later.
- Stage code/data materials and the Data Availability Statement.
See templates/cover_letter.md and templates/checklist.md for skeletons.
Track-choice arithmetic — worked example
Illustrative, using the published schedule (re-verify before paying). An EFA member
submits regular at EUR 300; a desk rejection refunds EUR 100, so being screened out costs
EUR 200. Fast-Track costs EUR 900 against a 14-day target — the premium buys several
months of expected calendar on a finished paper. Worth paying when a rival team is
circulating the same natural experiment or a deadline (tenure file, job market) needs the
decision; wasted when gate-level problems — page cap, soft identification, missing
disclosures — make a desk screen the likely outcome.
Desk-risk grid
| Check |
Pass condition |
Where it fails silently |
| Page count |
<=60 total incl. appendices, bibliography, exhibits |
appendix tables added after the last count |
| Abstract |
<=150 words with the finding stated |
counting keywords or JEL line by mistake |
| Anonymity |
no names, grants, repos; metadata scrubbed |
acknowledgement footnote surviving from the working-paper version |
| Disclosure |
prior-RoF-rejection and no-parallel-submission statements present |
omission triggers desk rejection plus the two-year ban |
| Code policy |
proprietary-data exception requested in this cover letter |
exception deferred to later (the policy expects it at initial submission) |
| Format |
12-pt minimum, 1.5 spacing, required margins, PDF starting at page 1 |
LaTeX class silently compiling at 11-pt |
Final-hour sequence
- Recount pages with the final bibliography and appendices compiled in.
- Regenerate the PDF, strip author metadata, and open it on a clean machine to confirm.
- Re-read the cover letter for the two disclosure sentences and any code-sharing
exception paragraph.
- Confirm the Editorial Express account, the fee route (member vs. non-member, regular
vs. Fast-Track), and payment details.
- Archive the exact submitted PDF and a hash of the replication package so the eventual
R&R diff is auditable.
Upload manifest
- Anonymized manuscript PDF: the only file referees see — title page without names,
first page numbered 1, internet-appendix material clearly separated if included.
- Cover letter to the editor: disclosures, any code-sharing exception, optional context
on closely related own work (kept non-identifying in the manuscript itself).
- Supplementary files where applicable: internet appendix and any pre-staged replication
material, packaged for OUP hosting rather than an external archive link (which would
break anonymity anyway).
- Fee payment confirmation on the chosen track; for Fast-Track the 14-day clock runs from
valid payment, so pay and upload the same day. Confirm the exact upload slots on
Editorial Express and the journal's current author guidelines — interfaces change.
Output format
[Submission readiness] Ready / Needs fixes / Not ready
[Route] regular / Fast-Track
[Blocking checks] <fee/page/abstract/anonymity/style/disclosure/code>
[Highest desk risk] <one issue>
[Fix order] <ordered list>
