A Developmental Approach to Academic Scholarship:

The Editorial Philosophy of the Multinational Finance Journal

 

The editors of Multinational Finance Journal (MFJ) believes that research improves when editors, reviewers, and authors work collaboratively to examine a question, issue or behavior. We believe that the goal of the peer review process is to improve the quality of a study such that  it can ultimately become a publishable manuscript. Consequently, MFJ’s editorial philosophy emphasizes the academic development of the manuscript nested within an editorial decision. Our  reviewers will provide instructive comments with a focus on improvement rather than being exclusively evaluative.

An important aspect of our editorial philosophy is the support we provide our authors. MFJ recognizes that researchers come from a variety of backgrounds and stages in their academic careers. We want our review process to be a mentorship, especially helping early-career or international scholars to improve their manuscripts and to grow as academic scholars. MFJ  accomplishes this in a variety of ways.

Helpful Feedback, Not Just Criticism: Our reviewers discuss both the contributions and potential weaknesses in a study. The goal of our review process is to identify a path forward for the authors towards eventual publication. We invite the authors to work with the reviewers and editors to develop a study that contributes to  the  international finance and accounting literatures. In short, MFJ’s approach is about working with authors to improve their research. MFJ views peer review as an opportunity to develop ideas and scholars, not merely an assessment or evaluation.

Working Together to Improve Research: The editors of MFJ see themselves as partners with the authors in the academic review process. When a study has promise but is imperfectly executed, the authors will be asked to revise consistent with some specific guidance and resubmit to MFJ.

Focus on Usefulness, Relevance and Innovation: The editors of MFJ want the studies appearing in the journal to be interesting, impactful and innovative. The editors will guide authors in explaining  why their research is important, relevant, and useful to both the academic and professional communities.

Clear Communication: Authors are expected to respond to the reviewer in the spirit of collaboration and partnership. The reviewers for MFJ will focus on improving the manuscript so that a publishable manuscript can be developed. Authors should respond to reviewers in a similar spirit and return a manuscript that is responsive to the requested changes.