Jfqa Topic Selection

---
name: jfqa-topic-selection
description: Judge whether a research question fits the Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis (JFQA) — empirical and quantitative financial economics (corporate finance, investments, capital and security markets, financial institutions, finance-relevant quantitative methods). Use before investing in a JFQA submission to test scope fit and the quantitative-evidence bar.
---

# JFQA Topic Selection (jfqa-topic-selection)

Use this skill to test whether a finance question belongs in the **Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis (JFQA)** before you build the paper and pay the **$350** submission fee (only **$275** refundable if it is not sent to a reviewer).

## What JFQA publishes

JFQA covers **theoretical and empirical** research in financial economics, with a quantitative core:

- **Corporate finance** — capital structure, payout, governance, M&A, investment.
- **Investments / asset pricing** — cross-section of returns, factors, anomalies, portfolio choice.
- **Capital and security markets** — market microstructure, liquidity, price discovery.
- **Financial institutions** — banks, intermediaries, regulation.
- **Quantitative methods** relevant to finance.

The name is load-bearing: the journal rewards **quantitative analysis** — disciplined data, models, and inference — over purely descriptive or institutional essays.

## Fit checklist

- [ ] Question sits squarely in financial economics, not adjacent (pure macro, accounting-only, generic econometrics).
- [ ] There is a **quantitative empirical or theoretical** answer — not just a narrative.
- [ ] The data/design can deliver a clean, defensible result (see jfqa-identification-strategy).
- [ ] The contribution is sharp enough to survive a journal that prints **< 9%** of 1,000+ annual submissions.
- [ ] If empirical, the data can be archived (raw or pseudo dataset) under the JFQA Code Sharing Policy.

## Anti-patterns

- A descriptive industry study with no quantitative test or model.
- A method paper with no genuine finance application (belongs in an econometrics outlet).
- An incremental anomaly with no economic mechanism or out-of-sample discipline.
- Excessive length that invites desk rejection (JFQA discourages over-long papers).

## Output format

```
【Scope fit】corporate finance / investments / markets / institutions / methods?
【Quantitative core】Y/N — what is measured/estimated
【Selectivity check】is the contribution sharp enough for <9%?
【Next step】jfqa-literature-positioning
```