Editorial Policies, Author Guidelines, and SBFin Award
The Brazilian Review of Finance (RBFin) publishes high-quality scientific works and has contributed to the development of research, teaching, and practice in Finance in Brazil since 2003. This page presents RBFin’s editorial policies, ethical standards, author instructions, peer-review process, and award information in a structured and accessible format.
↪ 📄 Editorial Policy
The Brazilian Review of Finance publishes high-quality scientific works, aiming to contribute to the development of research, teaching, and practice in Finance in Brazil. To maintain editorial quality, all participants in the editorial process — authors, editors, reviewers, and editorial staff — are expected to be aware of and aligned with the Journal’s editorial practices.
📑 Sponsors and Advertisements
The Journal accepts sponsorship and advertisements provided that they do not interfere with its editorial independence and that the following principles are observed:
- The Journal reserves the right to refuse advertisements that are not aligned with good editorial practices and with recommendations issued by organizations such as the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) and the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).
- All accepted advertising must be clearly distinguishable from editorial content.
- Advertisements for products proven to be harmful are not accepted.
- Advertisements must not be placed next to articles that mention or discuss the advertised products.
- Sponsored content, such as supplements or special issues, must clearly disclose external funding, with no interference in the editorial process.
📑 Research and Publication Ethics
The Journal follows the Guidelines on Good Publication Practice recommended by COPE in all editorial activities. Identified cases of scientific misconduct are referred to and examined together with the Editorial Policy Committee.
🏷 Reporting Suspicions and Problems
Authors, reviewers, editors, and readers must report suspicions of misconduct or irregularities, whether during evaluation or after publication, by contacting the Editor-in-Chief. All reports will be handled confidentially and in accordance with the Journal’s correction and retraction policies.
🏷 Corrections and Retractions
- Publication of errata: when errors are identified after publication, the Journal may publish an erratum.
- Retractions: when scientific misconduct or serious flaws that invalidate results are confirmed, the Journal may publish a retraction.
- Article removal: only in exceptional cases, such as duly proven court orders. In such cases, a “Removal Note” with DOI will still be published.
🏷 Resolution of Suspicions and Disputes
The Journal evaluates cases involving plagiarism, self-plagiarism, authorship disputes, data or image manipulation, duplicate submission, undeclared conflicts of interest, and related matters in accordance with the COPE Retraction Guidelines.
🏷 Responsibilities in the Editorial Process
Editors' Responsibilities
- Ensure a fair and unbiased peer-review process.
- Select qualified reviewers with relevant expertise.
- Avoid conflicts of interest that could compromise objectivity.
- Maintain strict confidentiality regarding manuscripts and the review process.
- Act proactively to identify and address errors and misconduct.
- Oversee the integrity of published content, including corrections and retractions.
Authors' Responsibilities
- Define authorship clearly and fairly, based on substantial contributions.
- Obtain consent and ethical approvals when applicable.
- Ensure originality and avoid simultaneous submission to another journal.
- Declare conflicts of interest and obtain permissions for third-party material.
- Respond promptly to reviewers and editors during peer review.
- Notify the Journal immediately if errors are identified after publication.
Reviewers' Responsibilities
- Accept reviews only when suitably qualified and available to review on time.
- Decline invitations if there is a lack of expertise or a potential conflict of interest.
- Maintain strict confidentiality regarding manuscript content.
- Provide clear, objective, and constructive reports.
- Report any suspicion of plagiarism, data manipulation, or duplicate publication.
📑 Conflicts of Interest
All participants in the editorial process — authors, reviewers, editors, and editorial staff — must act transparently and ethically, disclosing any information that could reasonably be perceived as compromising their judgment or actions during any stage of the research and publication process.
This includes, but is not limited to:
- financial ties with companies interested in the results;
- involvement in patents related to the subject of the study;
- personal or professional relationships between authors and reviewers;
- conflicting institutional interests;
- participation in competing projects that may affect impartiality.
Authors must provide this declaration on the Title Page, and it will also be published in a specific section within the article.
📑 Plagiarism and Duplicate Publication
The Journal uses the similarity-detection tool Paperpal to help ensure manuscript originality. Cases of plagiarism and duplicate publication will be examined by the Editor-in-Chief together with the Editorial Policy Committee, in line with the Research and Publication Ethics Policies.
🏷 Plagiarism
Plagiarism is the presentation of ideas, text, or data from third parties without proper citation of the original source. Reusing excerpts from one’s own previously published work without appropriate citation is considered self-plagiarism.
🏷 Duplicate Publication
Duplicate publication refers both to the submission of the same article to different journals and to the reuse of previously published content with only minimal additions in relation to the original version.
📑 Research Involving Humans and Animals
For research involving living subjects, authors must follow the ICMJE recommendations on the protection of research participants. All studies must comply with the Declaration of Helsinki and applicable legislation.
🏷 Ethics Committee
Research involving human subjects must be approved by a Research Ethics Committee, and the approval protocol must be reported in the methodology section of the article.
🏷 Research with Animals
Research involving animal experiments must follow high ethical standards concerning animal welfare, and approval by an appropriate committee must be reported in the methodology section of the article.
📑 Data Availability
The Brazilian Review of Finance promotes transparency and scientific reproducibility, encouraging authors to make available the data supporting their findings. The Journal adopts international references such as the Transparency and Openness Promotion Guidelines (TOP) and the data and code policy of the American Economic Association (AEA).
🏷 Data Sharing
Authors are encouraged to deposit their research data in recognized repositories that assign persistent identifiers such as DOIs and follow the FAIR principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable).
🏷 Data Availability Statement
The manuscript must indicate whether the data are publicly available, available upon request, or unavailable, in which case the reasons must be explained. When data are available, the repository name and the direct link or DOI must be provided.
🏷 Repositories
Authors are encouraged to use trusted repositories such as Mendeley Data, Zenodo, and the Open Science Framework.
🏷 Data Citation
Citations of datasets deposited in repositories must include the creator of the dataset, title, repository, year of publication, and DOI.
📑 Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) Tools
The use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools in manuscript preparation is permitted, provided that it is carried out ethically and transparently.
Authors must disclose the tool(s) used, the methods applied, and how the outputs were interpreted. In all cases, authors remain responsible for ensuring scientific rigor.
🏷 Transparency and Declaration
The use of any AI tool at any stage of the work must be disclosed in the Methodology section and in an appropriate declarations section.
🏷 Authorship and Responsibility
AI tools cannot be listed as authors or co-authors. Their use does not exempt authors from responsibility for errors, omissions, or integrity issues.
🏷 Continuous Policy Development
RBFin’s guidelines on AI use in manuscript preparation will be continuously updated in line with technological developments and ethical recommendations.
📑 Reporting Guidelines
Authors are encouraged to follow the reporting guidelines most appropriate to their type of study so that methods and results are described as clearly and completely as possible.
📑 Preprints and Other Prior Publications
🏷 Preprints
The Journal accepts submissions of articles deposited in reliable repositories such as:
🏷 Academic Dissertations and Theses
Undergraduate final projects, dissertations, and theses may be submitted if adapted to RBFin’s categories and if they present substantially relevant and original content.
🏷 Research Presented at Scientific Events
Adapted versions of papers previously presented at scientific events may be submitted, provided they contain substantially original content and properly cite the earlier version.
📑 About the Evaluation Process
The Brazilian Review of Finance adopts peer review as a core stage of its editorial process in order to ensure the academic quality, originality, and relevance of the articles it publishes.
🏷 (1) Initial Verification and Editorial Evaluation
- Adherence to RBFin’s scope and relevance to the Finance community;
- Quality of academic writing;
- Compliance with editorial standards and documentation requirements;
- Originality and similarity, assessed through Paperpal.
🏷 (2) Peer Review
Manuscripts approved in the initial screening are assigned to a handling editor, who invites two reviewers with expertise in the relevant thematic area.
The process follows a double-anonymous peer-review model, except for manuscripts previously posted in preprint repositories, which are evaluated under a single-anonymous model.
🏷 (3) Editorial Decision
- Accept
- Resubmit with Revisions
- Reject
The final editorial decision is the responsibility of the Editor-in-Chief.
🏷 (4) Contestation of Editorial Decision
Authors may appeal the outcome of the review process by contacting the Editor-in-Chief. Cases not explicitly covered by RBFin’s Editorial Policy will be referred to the Editorial Policy Committee.
🏷 Internal Submissions
The Brazilian Review of Finance does not evaluate or publish articles authored by its Editor-in-Chief or the President of the Brazilian Finance Society. From these individuals, only Editorial Reports and official communications from SBFin are accepted.
Associate Editors, members of the Editorial Policy Committee, and members of the Scientific Editorial Board may submit articles, but no more than one article by each of these members may be published during their three-year term.
🏷 Previously Published Contributions
For manuscripts previously published in preprint repositories, the same criteria and rigor established in RBFin’s policy on preprints apply. In these cases, authors must provide the previously published version to support the evaluation of the version submitted to the Journal.
📄 Guidelines for Reviewers
Reviewers are expected to conduct their assessments with responsibility, confidentiality, and impartiality, as described in the Research and Publication Ethics Policy.
Must be clear and concise, accurately representing the content of the article.
Must present objectives, methodology, results, and conclusions objectively, in Portuguese and English.
The text must follow a logical structure, with precise and objective writing.
Must be clear, coherent, and aligned with the study proposal.
The work must demonstrate a significant contribution to the field.
The literature review must be current, pertinent, and well aligned with the research objectives.
Must be appropriate to the type of research and clearly described, with Ethics Committee approval when applicable.
Must be presented clearly and interpreted consistently.
Must synthesize the main findings of the study coherently.
Must be up to date, relevant, and appropriate to the content discussed.
📄 Instructions for Authors
📑 General Policies
- The Journal does not charge submission or publication fees.
- Only manuscripts aligned with RBFin’s policies and scope are evaluated.
- Authors are expected to follow the Language Policy and Manuscript Preparation requirements.
📑 Processing and Publication Fees
RBFin does not charge submission, processing, or publication fees. However, in cases of translation or language revision, authors must bear the associated costs.
📑 Language Policy
The Journal accepts submissions in Portuguese and English. If an article submitted in Portuguese is accepted, authors may choose to have it translated into English by a qualified professional, at their own expense.
📑 Section Policies
🏷 Original Articles
Original empirical or theoretical research with explicit methodology, solid grounding in the literature, and detailed analytical discussion.
🏷 Review Articles
Critical syntheses of the literature, with comparative analysis, gap identification, and theoretical contribution.
🏷 Short Paper
Preliminary results or specific analyses, presented concisely.
Limit: up to 4,000 words and 4 exhibits (tables + figures), excluding references.
📑 Authorship Policies
🏷 Authorship Criteria
- significant contribution to the conception and design of the study, or to data collection, analysis, or interpretation;
- active participation in drafting the manuscript or critically revising it with substantial intellectual contribution;
- final approval of the version to be published;
- commitment to and responsibility for all stages of the work.
🏷 Authorship Changes and Conflict Resolution
- After submission: the corresponding author must submit an updated version of the manuscript.
- After acceptance: a formal explanation and a declaration signed by all authors involved must be submitted.
- After publication: changes will be considered exceptional and assessed under the Corrections and Retractions Policy.
🏷 Acknowledgments
Contributions that do not meet all authorship criteria but played a relevant role — such as technical support, statistical consulting, writing assistance, data collection, or funding — should be described in this section.
📑 Financial Support
Authors must disclose all sources of financial support related to the development of the research or the writing of the article, including scholarships, grants, and funding from public or private institutions.
📑 Guidelines and Files for Submission
Authors must register and submit their articles through: https://periodicos.fgv.br/rbfin/login
| Stage | File Type | File Name | Mandatory? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Initial submission | Title Page | titlepage.pdf | Yes |
| Initial submission | Manuscript | manuscript.pdf | Yes |
| Initial submission | Cover Letter | cover-letter.pdf | Yes |
| Initial submission | Ethics Committee approval report | ethics-approval.pdf | Yes, if the article involves human subjects |
| Initial submission | Figure files | figure1.eps, figure2.eps, etc. | Yes, if the article contains images |
| Initial submission | Full supplemental material | Various formats | Yes, when applicable |
| Initial submission | Auxiliary supplemental material | Various formats | Yes, when applicable |
| Submission of revised version | Comments for reviewers | revisioncomments.pdf | Yes, for revised manuscripts |
| Submission of revised version | Complete manuscript with highlighted changes | revisedmanuscript.pdf | Yes, for revised manuscripts |
📑 Title Page
The title page must be submitted as a PDF or Markdown file and must include:
- Title in original language (maximum 10 words);
- Title in second language;
- Authors’ names, including ORCID iDs and email addresses;
- Authors’ affiliations in full, without acronyms;
- Financial support;
- Conflicts of interest;
- Acknowledgments;
- Data availability statement and preprints;
- Ethics declaration;
- Artificial Intelligence use declaration.
📑 Responsibility Statement and Publication License
Upon submission, authors must declare that the manuscript is original, unpublished, not under review by another journal, and does not contain plagiarism or improper data manipulation; that all sources and credits have been properly acknowledged; that conflicts of interest and funding have been fully disclosed; and that authorship reflects effective contributions.
Authors must also declare that they agree with RBFin’s Open Access Policy, which adopts the Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 license.
📑 Research Ethics Committee (CEP) Approval Report
For studies involving human subjects, approval from the Ethics Committee must be attached to the submission.
📑 Cover Letter
The cover letter should include essential information that will not appear in the article itself but is considered important for the editorial process.
📑 Manuscript Preparation
RBFin’s LaTeX template is available for registered Overleaf users and should be used in accordance with the specifications below.
🏷 File Format and Attributes
Articles must be submitted in PDF format and must not contain author names or any identifying information in the manuscript file.
🏷 Manuscript Title
The title must be clear, concise, and accurately reflect the content of the study, with a maximum of 10 words.
🏷 Abstract and Keywords
The abstract must contain no more than 150 words. Authors must provide 3 to 5 keywords, separated by semicolons.
🏷 JEL Classification
Authors must provide 1 to 3 JEL classification codes, following the guidelines available at AEA JEL Codes.
🏷 Abbreviations and Symbols
All abbreviations must be spelled out in full at first mention. Symbols must follow recognized conventions.
🏷 Footnotes
Footnotes must be used only for clarifications that cannot be incorporated directly into the main text.
📑 Use of Colors
The use of colors is permitted, but authors must ensure that color choices do not impair comprehension for readers with visual impairments.
📑 Figures
Figures must be numbered sequentially, accompanied by a title and descriptive legend, placed as close as possible to the relevant text excerpt, and explicitly cited in the manuscript.
🏷 Resolution and Formats
Charts, figures, and diagrams must be provided in vector format (.eps, .svg, or .pdf). When vector files are not possible, TIFF format with 600 dpi resolution and 148 mm width must be used.
🏷 Editing and Manipulation
Authors must avoid excessive filters or edits that may distort or unduly emphasize elements. Excessive image manipulation may compromise clarity and interpretation.
📑 Tables and Charts
Tables must be inserted in the body of the text, numbered independently, and accompanied by a title and descriptive legend. The legend must always indicate the source. Submitting tables as image files is not permitted.
📑 References and Citations
RBFin adopts the Harvard author-date system, implemented in the DCU style using the natbib and har2nat packages in LaTeX.
🏷 In-text Citations
Parenthetical: (Markowitz, 1952); (Rockafellar and Uryasev, 2002)
Integrated into text: Markowitz (1952) proposes... Rockafellar and Uryasev (2002) demonstrate...
For three or more authors, use “et al.”: (Fama et al., 1993)
🏷 For Authors Using LaTeX
Use the Journal’s Overleaf template, which already includes the citation and reference style configuration: Template (Overleaf)
📑 Post-acceptance and Publication
🏷 Translated Publication Option
Articles submitted in Portuguese may be translated and published in English after acceptance, at the authors’ expense.
🏷 Revision
The Journal reserves the right to suggest or request revisions to ensure clarity, coherence, and compliance with editorial standards.
🏷 Content and Layout Revision
After revision and typesetting, authors will receive the edited version of the article for proofreading, adjustments, and approval before publication.
🏷 Post-publication Corrections
Errors identified after publication must be reported to the Editor-in-Chief for evaluation, in line with the Corrections and Retractions Policy.
🏷 Order and Priority of Publication
RBFin adopts a continuous publication model, allowing articles to be published as soon as the editorial process is completed.
↪ 📄 SBFin Award
Since 2005, the Editorial Board of the Brazilian Review of Finance has selected one of the articles published in the previous year to receive a cash prize offered by the Brazilian Finance Society (SBFin). The SBFin Award aims to encourage the publication of high-quality articles in RBFin, in any area of Finance.
Awarded Publications
Volume 20 (2022)
Award: Alexandre Schwinden Garcia (UFAM) and Roberto Meurer (UFSC)
Title: Elections, state-owned banks, and bank profitability in Brazil.
Honorable Mention: José Valentim Machado Vicente (Central Bank of Brazil), Jaqueline Terra Moura Marins (Central Bank of Brazil), and Wagner Piazza Gaglianone (Central Bank of Brazil)
Title: Impacts of the Monetary Policy Committee decisions on the foreign exchange rate in Brazil.
Volume 19 (2021)
Award: Mateus Bonelli, Rafael Schiozer, and Lucas Vasconcelos
Title: Redução de risco no crédito com duplicatas.
Honorable Mention: Cristiane Gea, Luciano Vereda, Antonio Carlos Figueiredo Pinto, and Marcelo Cabus Klotzle
Title: The effects of economic policy uncertainty on stock market returns: Evidence from Brazil.