Topic Selection & Novelty Fit (rfs-topic-selection)

When to trigger

• The idea feels incremental, derivative, or "me-too"
• You can describe a method or dataset but not the new question it answers
• You are unsure whether the topic clears RFS's novelty bar (vs. a field journal)
• A coauthor says "this is clean but is it interesting enough for RFS?"

The RFS fit test: novelty AND rigor

RFS prizes both. Score the idea on both axes before investing in empirics.

Novelty axis — what is genuinely new? At least one must be a strong "yes":

1. New question — a first-order finance question not previously framed this way.
2. New mechanism / theory — a model that reorganizes how we think about an old fact.
3. New data — a dataset that lets you see something previously invisible.
4. New method — a credibly better tool for an important question.