Submission Preflight (rfs-submission)

When to trigger

• "We submit this week"
• Final check before clicking submit on the portal
• Unsure which files the portal expects (manuscript, IA, cover letter, code/data)

Portal & process

• RFS submits through the SFS Editorial Express portal (editorialexpress.com), reached from sfs.org/review-of-financial-studies/submit-a-paper — not ScholarOne or Editorial Manager. Create/verify your account.
• The handling structure is an Executive Editor (Tarun Ramadorai, LSE/Imperial, 2024–2027) → handling Editor → referees. An Editor desk-screens before sending out; many manuscripts never reach referees.
• Submission fee (tiered by World Bank income band and SFS membership; schedule effective 8 July 2024, re-verified 2026-06-22 on sfs.org): high-income economies $400 SFS member / $460 non-member; middle-income (all coauthors resident) $260 / $320; low-income waived. Desk-reject refund $200 (high-income) / $130 (middle-income); an appeal costs $860. SFS membership lets you submit to any SFS journal at the member rate, so joining is often cheaper than the non-member differential. The fee is waived for current-year SFS members on a conditionally accepted paper and for invited dual submissions (first round); re-verify the current figures on sfs.org/review-of-financial-studies/submit-a-paper before submitting.
• Two RFS-specific on-ramps JF/JFE lack: (1) Registered Reports — Stage 1 design-only review and in-principle acceptance (rfs-identification); (2) dual submission with the SFS Cavalcade — the conference reviews the paper and forwards it with reviews to RFS at no charge; do not also submit it to RFS directly while that is pending. For an invited Cavalcade dual submission, the first-round fee is waived.
• Code-release condition: RFS requires authors to publicly release all code underlying a published paper as a condition of publication; if you cannot, you must say so in the cover letter to the editor.

Pre-submission checklist