Joint Statement by the Editors of the JF, RFS, and the Incoming Editor of the JFE Concerning Referee Confidentiality

A recent paper by the current editor of the Journal of Financial Economicsposted on SSRN on December 15, 2020 revealed paper acceptance rates by individual referees at the JFE.

The editors of the JF, RFS, and the incoming editor of the JFE hereby affirm our commitment to never publicly disclose data that could reveal individual referees’ confidential recommendations, or any other confidential information about the editorial process.

The editors of the JF, RFS, and the incoming editor of the JFE further believe that editors are bound by the AFA Code of Professional Conduct and Ethics, sections 6.(d)(5) and 6.(f), as well as the rules for human subjects research, to not publicly disclose such confidential information.

Itay Goldstein, Executive Editor, Review of Financial Studies
Stefan Nagel, Executive Editor, Journal of Finance
Toni Whited, Co-Editor and Incoming Executive Editor, Journal of Financial Economics