Code Sharing – for papers first submitted on or after 01/01/2022
To ensure the quality and reliability of papers published in the Review of Finance, we are introducing a Code Sharing Policy. It applies to all papers whose first submissions are on or after 1 January, 2022:
- Code Sharing. Authors of accepted papers that contain empirical analysis, simulations, numerical computations, or experimental work must provide the programs needed for replication to the Review of Finance. The code should include details needed for other researchers to run it, such as the software packages, programming languages and data formats used, and comments explaining the purpose of each section of the code.
- Data Sharing. Authors are also encouraged to include the data along with the code, if the data is not proprietary. If the authors choose not to provide the data, they must include a pseudo-data set that illustrates the format of the files read by the code, so that users can understand and check the functionality of the code. They must also provide the log files that were generated when the code was run on the actual data, and produced the results included in the paper. If the software package does not produce log files, the authors should provide equivalent documentation (e.g. screenshots).
- Exceptions. Authors can only be granted an exception to this policy if they request it in the cover letter at the time of initial submission. These exceptions will only be granted in rare cases, and are likely to involve a delay in sharing the code rather than a blanket exception. In the absence of such an exception, accepted papers will be published online only after the code has been received by the RF. The code will be made available on the RF‘s website.
- Code Usage. Researchers downloading the code will need to certify that they will use it only for academic research. Any other use, including for commercial purposes, is strictly prohibited except with explicit permission from all authors of the published article. Academic researchers using the code, or fragments of it, in their own work are required to acknowledge the origin of the code. Authors are not required to provide assistance to users of the code or answer any questions concerning it.
Data Availability Statement – all papers
The inclusion of a Data Availability Statement is a requirement for articles published in the Review of Finance. Data Availability Statements provide a standardised format for readers to understand the availability of data underlying the research results described in the article. The statement may refer to original data generated in the course of the study or to third-party data analysed in the article. The statement should describe and provide means of access, where possible, by linking to the data or providing the required unique identifier.
The Data Availability Statement should be included in the end matter of your article under the heading ‘Data availability’.
More information and example Data Availability Statements can be found here. The RF has a Level 2 policy.
Data Citation
The Review of Finance supports the Force 11 Data Citation Principles and requires that all publicly available datasets be fully referenced in the reference list with an accession number or unique identifier such as a digital object identifier (DOI). Data citations should include the minimum information recommended by DataCite:
[dataset]* Authors, Year, Title, Publisher (repository or archive name), Identifier*The inclusion of the [dataset] tag at the beginning of the citation helps us to correctly identify and tag the citation. This tag will be removed from the citation published in the reference list.
Preprint Policy
Authors retain the right to make an Author’s Original Version (preprint) available through various channels, and this does not prevent submission to the journal. For further information see our Online Licensing, Copyright and Permissions policies. If accepted, the authors are required to update the status of any preprint, including your published paper’s DOI. The RF applies OUP’s Author Self-Archiving policy, with an embargo period of 24 months.