The Journal of Financial Planning welcomes original, advanced papers on any aspect of financial planning—typically research-based and 5,000 words in length. When submitting a paper for peer review please indicate if any portion of the manuscript has been published or posted online elsewhere, and if it has, please provide the citation and/or web address. Please consider the composition approach and elements detailed below to give your paper its best chance of succeeding through peer review to publication.

COMPOSITION APPROACH

Audience

Keep our readers—primarily experienced financial planning professionals—in mind as you write. Provide timely, practical material that applies to, or will directly benefit, financial planners in their work. Assume the reader has a fundamental but not esoteric knowledge.

Style

The Journal of Financial Planning uses The Chicago Manual of Style (16th edition) as a guide for formatting, writing style, and references. Your writing style should be easy to read and follow, yet professional. Thoughts and concepts should be clearly presented and easy to comprehend. Examples that illustrate key points are encouraged.

Authors are encouraged to write with the following guidelines in mind:

1. Avoid the use of first person narrative, when possible. For example, rather than state, “I added an unconstrained variable to the model,” write “An unconstrained variable was added to the model.”
2. The review of literature and presentation of results should generally be written in past tense. For example, stating something like, “Grable (2013) presented findings regarding past portfolio performance” is preferable to saying, “Grable presents findings …”

Organization

Authors are encouraged to stay focused on guiding the reader through the paper. State early the paper’s purpose, the material it will cover, and why that material is important and useful to the reader. Include a literature review of previous research on which the paper builds; additionally, explain how the paper differs and adds to the literature. After laying out the new research, clearly summarize the paper's premise and key findings or recommendations.

Objectivity

Content should be objective and avoid mentioning or promoting specific financial products or services. Any statements or assertions should be supported by sufficient research and data.

Research

Academic research in financial planning should have a direct and demonstrable application or benefit for financial planners. All research should be readily accessible by editorial staff, review board members, and readers.

COMPOSITION ELEMENTS

It is important that submissions follow, as closely as possible, style and composition elements as outlined in The Chicago Manual of Style. Be sure to read the following guidelines prior to submission:

Length

Manuscripts should run approximately 5,000 words.

Format

Each author’s name, mailing address, e-mail address, phone number, and a brief biography should be included on the cover page. For blind-review purposes, the second page should consist of the title and an executive summary of no more than 250 words, but do not include your name.

Executive Summary

The executive summary should be presented as a bulleted list:

• The summary should tell readers what they can expect from reading the paper, including all major points and broad conclusions.
• Do not attempt to sell the reader on the merits of the article.
• Include information such as whether your article is a primer, for the experienced planner, or for planners at any level and highlight any specific opportunities for practical application of your data.
• The executive summary should be no longer than 250 words.

Infographics

Infographics—tables, drawings, graphs, charts, or other visual support material—should not be excessive in length or in number. Please limit the total number of infographics to four or fewer.

Endnotes/References

The Journal of Financial Planning does not use footnotes; we use endnotes. Please keep the reader in mind when including endnotes and references, ensuring that what is included is pertinent to what is in the text. Clarity and readability are the main criteria for inclusion. We discourage endnotes longer than two sentences (about 40 words). If an endnote is longer in length, it should be included as part of the text instead of the endnotes. , URLs should be provided when possible. Please check your endnotes and references carefully for accuracy before submitting your paper.

Formatting instructions: The Journal of Financial Planning uses an author/date system. References should be formatted as handing indention. While there are too many variations based on the variety of sources to cover here, these are our basic formats for articles and books.

• Articles: Last Name, First Name [subsequent authors are First Name, Last Name]. Year. "Article Title." Publication Title 1 [volume] (2) [issue]: 22–32 [page numbers].
  
  Bengen, William P. 1994. “Determining Withdrawal Rates Using Historical Data.” Journal of Financial Planning 7 (4): 171–180.
  
  Blanchett, David M., and Larry R. Frank. 2009. “A Dynamic and Adaptive Approach to Distribution Planning and Monitoring.” Journal of Financial Planning 22 (4): 52–66.
  
  Finke, Michael, Made D. Pfau, and Duncan Williams. 2012. “Spending flexibility and Safe Withdrawal Rates.”  Journal of Financial Planning 25 (3): 44–51.
  
  Grable, John E., and Sonya L. Britt. 2011. “An Investigation of Response Bias Associated with Electronically Delivered Risk-Tolerance Assessment.” Journal of Financial Therapy 2, 1, accessed January 15, 2013, http://jftonline.org/journals/jft/article/view/1347.
• Books: Last Name, First Name [subsequent authors are First Name, Last Name]. Year. Book Title. 4th ed. City: Publisher.
  
  Fithian, Scott and Todd Fithian. 2007. The Right Side of the Table. Denver: Financial Planning Press.
  
  Lennick, Doug. 2010. Financial Intelligence. 2nd ed. Denver: FPA Press.

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

Initial Screening

• Our editorial staff first screens manuscripts for appropriateness and quality, and may suggest revisions before sending a manuscript for blind peer review.
• Authors are notified of the editorial staff's decision. 

Peer Review

• Articles with merit will be reviewed by members of the Journal of Financial Planning's editorial review board. The initial screening and peer-review process takes approximately four to six weeks. You will be notified as soon as we have heard from all of our reviewers.
• Once we have received all manuscript reviews, you will receive an email notifying you of next steps for your manuscript (publish, revise, reject), along with copies of the reviewers' evaluations.
• While your manuscript is in the review process, we ask that you do not submit it to any other publication for consideration. The Journal of Financial Planning will not publish any articles that have been accepted or printed by other publications.

Remuneration
Authors receive no remuneration or reimbursement for any expenses incurred in conjunction with the preparation of articles published in the Journal of Financial Planning. 

Submission

• Send your completed manuscript or article ideas to Associate Editor Brenda Gillen as a Microsoft Word file, at Brenda.Gillen@FPAnet.org.
• We acknowledge receipt of all manuscripts.
• If you need ideas for writing a manuscript, we've compiled a list of possible topics.  

Questions?
Contact Brenda Gillen at (303) 867-7145 or (800) 322-4237 ext. 7145 or send an email to Brenda.Gillen@FPAnet.org.