With Growth, a Growing Obligation
The FAJ has much to offer potential authors—notably, in reaching the investment practitioner community more effectively, arguably, than any other journal. Since the launch of the Financial Analysts Journal in 1945, the FAJ has had a perhaps lofty but nonetheless admirable vision: to help shape a world where investment practitioners are knowledgeable and wise and where their clients are served with the highest ability and integrity. Although a lot has changed in the nearly 60 years since the FAJ began, that vision remains central to our mission. The FAJ's continuing goal is to publish the finest practitioner-oriented thinking and research in the field of investment management.
What has certainly changed is the reach of the FAJ, in both numbers and geographic scope. What was once a journal that served fewer than 100 readers, primarily in New York City, is now sent to more than 65,000 people located around the globe. Our total readership is well over 100,000.
Growth in numbers and dispersion of readers has increased the FAJ's obligations to advance knowledge about the investment management field. And to meet these obligations, the FAJ cannot passively wait for good manuscripts to arrive at its door. Instead, we must actively reach out and encourage others to research, write, and submit articles to the journal.
We at the FAJ, therefore, are strongly encouraging the submission of papers that represent an idea or research that is sound, well reasoned, clearly presented, and useful to the practitioner community. We want papers that will extend knowledge about practices, tools, and theory in investment management. We want papers from practitioner and academic authors alike that are written for a practitioner audience. Among practitioners, we already are an “automatic” venue for sharing new and interesting ideas. For academic writers, we want to be the “first call” for papers that are of practical use to the practitioner community. In short, we want to be the natural choice for articles that target the needs of the practitioner world.
Having an article published in the FAJ is a mark of distinction. We are one of the most selective journals in the finance community. The FAJ has a rigorous editorial selection process: All articles are subject to a double-blind review by both an academic referee focusing on correctness and a practitioner referee focusing on usefulness. In essence, an article published in the FAJ has passed two important hurdles—a correctness level established by the academic community and a high level of relevance to the practitioner community.
With its large circulation and readership, the FAJ provides unparalleled distribution of an author's ideas and research. Readers are investment practitioners and academics from New York City to Zurich to Hong Kong to Miami. This circulation rivals or exceeds the combined circulation of all other finance journals, academic or practitioner. Readers range from portfolio managers and equity analysts to company presidents, board chairs, and chief investment officers. They work in giant investment management firms with the equivalent of hundreds of billions of dollars under management and in small firms managing private client portfolios. There is no better way to expose research and ideas to the global investment community than by publishing in the FAJ.
The FAJ has a long and proud heritage. It has published the works of many of the leading investment thinkers and researchers of the last half of the 20th century. As noted in the January/February 2003 “From the Editor,” the FAJ has published 14 articles by Benjamin Graham over a 30-year span, 19 articles by Fischer Black over two decades, 13 articles by William Sharpe over three decades, and 11 articles by Peter Bernstein over three decades. Furthermore, eight Nobel Prize winners in economics have written articles for the Financial Analysts Journal—Robert Engle, Milton Friedman, Clive Granger, Harry Markowitz, Robert Merton, Franco Modigliani, William Sharpe, and Jan Tinbergen. By publishing in the FAJ, an author becomes a part of this proud tradition.
To be instrumental in creating a world in which investment practitioners are knowledgeable and clients are well served, the FAJ strives to publish the very best articles. Clearly, however, the path to achieving our vision starts with authors. We hope authors, researchers, and thinkers in the field of investment management will consider publishing their best-articulated and most practitioner-relevant work in the Financial Analysts Journal and will encourage their colleagues to do so.