Topic Selection & General-Interest Fit (jf-topic-selection)

When to trigger

• Deciding whether a question is "JF-level" or belongs at a field/subfield journal
• The contribution is sound but narrow, and you must judge its reach
• Choosing among JF, JFE, and RFS for a finished paper

JF's bar: broad, flagship-level, general-interest

JF is the flagship general-interest journal of the American Finance Association (AFA), founded 1946, published bimonthly by Wiley-Blackwell, reaching 8,000+ readers across asset pricing, corporate finance, banking, microstructure, and household finance. With JFE and RFS it is one of the finance "top-3". The acceptance bar is severe: the editor's reports describe roughly a ~5% acceptance rate with ~33–45% of submissions desk-rejected (afajof.org editor reports, accessed 2026-05-30). A paper must matter to the whole AFA readership, not one subfield.

How JF differs from JFE / RFS for topic fit

• JF: the most general-interest of the three; rewards a single broad result any finance economist would find important.
• JFE: tolerates more specialized, results-driven corporate/empirical papers.
• RFS: often rewards methodological/technical depth. If swapping "JF" for a field journal would not change how the paper reads, the topic is probably too narrow for JF.

Fit test (run before committing)