Open Access Policy

1. Policy Orientation and Mission

The Journal of Financial Economics Review (JFER) is firmly committed to advancing open science and eliminating barriers to accessing cutting-edge scholarly knowledge. We believe that the immediate, free, and unrestricted dissemination of research findings is critical to accelerating scientific discovery, fostering global economic well-being, and driving policy progress. This Open Access Policy aims to clarify the journal’s operational model, the rights and obligations of all parties involved, and ensure full alignment with international norms and the policies of major research funding institutions—all in a clear and transparent manner.

2. Open Access Statement and Publication Model

JFER adopts a Gold Open Access model. All original research articles, reviews, commentaries, and other content that have undergone rigorous peer review and been accepted for publication will be made permanently and freely available to the global public immediately upon completion of the final editorial and publication process via the journal’s official website. Users may read, download, and share the full text online without registration or any access fees. This practice fully adheres to the core principles of the Budapest Open Access Initiative and the Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities.

3. Copyright and Licensing Agreements

Author Copyright: Authors retain full copyright of their published works. Submission of a manuscript to JFER constitutes an implicit agreement to sign the Journal’s Publication License Agreement, granting JFER the non-exclusive right to first publish and disseminate the work globally.
User License: All content published in JFER is distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) license. Under this license, users are permitted to:

Share: Copy and distribute the work in any medium or format.
Conditions: Proper attribution must be provided (including authors’ names, article title, journal name, volume, issue, and DOI link); the work may not be used for commercial purposes; and no adaptations or derivative works of the original content are allowed.
Any use beyond the scope of this license requires the explicit written permission of the copyright holder(s).

4. Article Processing Charges (APC), Funding, and Waiver Policy

To cover the costs of high-quality peer review management, professional editing, production and publication, platform maintenance, and long-term digital preservation, JFER charges an Article Processing Charge (APC) for accepted manuscripts.

Standard Rate: The standard APC ranges from 1,000 to 1,500 per article (unless otherwise specified). The exact amount may be adjusted slightly based on article length and complexity, and will be confirmed in the acceptance notification.
Payment Responsibility: The APC is typically borne by the corresponding author, their affiliated institution, or the funding project supporting the research. Payment is only required after the manuscript has been formally accepted for publication.
Transparent Waivers and Discounts: JFER is committed to ensuring that financial constraints do not hinder the dissemination of outstanding research.
Full Waiver Eligibility: Corresponding authors from countries classified as Least Developed Countries (LDCs) by the United Nations automatically qualify for a full APC waiver.
Waiver Application: Authors from low- and middle-income countries, or those who can demonstrate financial hardship (including early-career researchers and independent scholars), may submit a written application for a partial or full APC waiver. The editorial board will review and approve such requests on a case-by-case basis.
Institutional Memberships: Authors affiliated with universities or research institutions that have signed institutional membership agreements with JFER are eligible for prepaid discounts or fixed-quota publication benefits.

5. Funder and Institutional Policy Compliance Statement

JFER’s policy framework is designed to help authors meet the open access requirements of major public and private research funders worldwide.

Immediate Open Access and Licensing: JFER’s Gold Open Access model and CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license fully comply with the “immediate open access upon publication” mandates of funding bodies including the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC), National Social Science Fund of China (NSSFC), European Union’s Horizon Europe program, UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), and the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Plan S Compliance: JFER is a Plan S compliant journal. Research outputs published under this model meet the open access requirements of cOAlition S funders and their global partners.
Author Responsibility: Authors are obligated to declare all funding sources during manuscript submission and confirm compliance with relevant funding agreements. JFER encourages authors to use tools such as the Funder Registry to verify compliance.

6. Self-Archiving Policy (Green Open Access)

JFER supports and encourages Green Open Access to maximize the academic impact of research.

Archivable Version: Authors have the right to archive the Accepted Manuscript (i.e., the final peer-reviewed and revised version, prior to publisher formatting and pagination).
Allowed Archiving Platforms: These include, but are not limited to, personal or laboratory websites, institutional repositories, and recognized subject-specific preprint servers (e.g., SSRN, arXiv [economics and finance sections], RePEc).
Archiving Requirements: When self-archiving, authors must clearly indicate the publication status of the manuscript and provide a permanent link to the formally published version on JFER’s official website via its Digital Object Identifier (DOI).

7. Data Availability and Research Materials Sharing Policy

To enhance the reproducibility and utility of research, JFER has established the following policy:

Data Availability Statement: All empirical research articles must include a dedicated “Data Availability Statement” section, clearly stating whether the datasets supporting the article’s conclusions are publicly accessible, where they can be accessed, or providing valid reasons for data restrictions (e.g., commercial confidentiality, privacy protection).
Encouragement of Data Sharing: JFER strongly recommends that authors deposit anonymized research data supporting core conclusions in trusted public data repositories (e.g., Harvard Dataverse, Open Science Framework [OSF], ICPSR, or specialized financial databases) and cite the permanent access link in the article.
Code Sharing: For articles involving complex econometric analyses, algorithms, or model simulations, authors are encouraged to share their analytical code on platforms such as GitHub.

8. Long-Term Preservation and Permanent Access Commitment

JFER collaborates with leading global digital preservation institutions to ensure the permanent security of the scholarly record.

Archiving Systems: All published content is simultaneously archived in two distributed digital preservation systems: CLOCKSS and Portico. In the event of unforeseen disruptions to JFER’s publication platform, these institutions guarantee the permanent recoverability and accessibility of the content.
Permanent Identifiers: Each article is assigned a unique International Standard Digital Object Identifier (DOI), ensuring the permanent validity of access links.

9. Reader Rights, Reuse, and Citation Norms

Reader Rights: Any individual or institution may legally access and use content published in JFER in accordance with the terms of the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license.
Citation Obligation: All uses, including those in teaching, journalism, or policy references, must adhere to internationally recognized academic citation standards, with full and accurate attribution to the original authors and source.
Prohibited Uses: Commercial reuse (e.g., repackaging for sale, training commercial AI models) and any adaptation, derivation, or distortion of the original work are strictly prohibited.