What Society for Financial Studies does

The Society for Financial Studies (SFS) is a nonprofit academic society founded in 1987 and headquartered in Raleigh, North Carolina, that serves the global academic finance community through peer-reviewed journal publishing and research conferences. The organization operates three peer-reviewed journals in partnership with Oxford University Press: the Review of Financial Studies (RFS, flagship), the Review of Asset Pricing Studies (RAPS), and the Review of Corporate Finance Studies (RCFS). Together these journals cover asset pricing, corporate finance, financial intermediation, and household finance. SFS also organizes the annual SFS Cavalcade North America and Cavalcade Asia-Pacific conferences, the RCFS Winter Conference, and the RAPS/RCFS Europe Conference in Cambridge, UK. The conferences offer dual-submission pathways that allow presented papers to flow directly into the respective journal review pipelines, creating an integrated publishing and dissemination ecosystem. The society is governed by an elected SFS Council of academic members and is not owned by or affiliated with any commercial parent entity. SFS generates revenue through journal submission fees ($240 for members, $300 for nonmembers, plus a $1,000 fast-track option), conference registration fees ($100-$250 per attendee with waivers for PhD students and host-institution faculty), institutional journal subscriptions distributed via OUP, and individual membership dues managed through a new membership system launched in June 2025.

Name

Society for Financial Studies

Legal name

Society for Financial Studies

Website

https://sfs.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

2011

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Society for Financial Studies is a nonprofit academic society that publishes three peer-reviewed finance journals—Review of Financial Studies, Review of Asset Pricing Studies, and Review of Corporate Finance Studies—via Oxford University Press and hosts the Cavalcade conferences for global academic researchers.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Academic Journal Publishing

NAICS

Periodical Publishers (51312), Research and Development in the Social Sciences and Humanities (541720)

akta.pro primary industry

Conference Proceedings & Research Reports Publishing (EDAGAFAL)

Keywords

• Academic journal publishing
• Financial economics research
• Peer-reviewed journals
• Academic conferences
• Scholarly society

Headquarters

HQ city

Raleigh

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure

Pricing tiers

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

The Society for Financial Studies (SFS) is a nonprofit academic society that publishes three peer-reviewed financial economics journals — the Review of Financial Studies (RFS), Review of Asset Pricing Studies (RAPS), and Review of Corporate Finance Studies (RCFS) — in partnership with Oxford University Press, and hosts annual finance research conferences (SFS Cavalcade North America, SFS Cavalcade Asia-Pacific, RCFS Winter Conference, and RAPS/RCFS Europe Conference). It also runs an individual membership program with member benefits, awards (Rising Scholar, best paper), and dual-submission pathways linking conferences to journal review.

Product overview

The Society for Financial Studies operates a portfolio of three peer-reviewed academic journals in financial economics—Review of Financial Studies (RFS, flagship), Review of Asset Pricing Studies (RAPS), and Review of Corporate Finance Studies (RCFS)—published in partnership with Oxford University Press. The organization also organizes three major annual conferences: the SFS Cavalcade North America, the SFS Cavalcade Asia-Pacific, and the RCFS Winter Conference, which serve as presentation venues with optional dual-submission pathways to the respective journals. This journal-plus-conference structure forms an integrated academic publishing and dissemination ecosystem for financial economics research.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Review of Financial Studies: Peer-reviewed academic journal covering all areas of finance
• Review of Asset Pricing Studies
• Review of Corporate Finance Studies
• SFS Cavalcade
• RCFS Winter Conference

Products and services

• Review of Financial Studies (RFS) Peer-reviewed academic journal publishing research in all areas of financial economics, published in partnership with Oxford University Press. It is the flagship journal of the Society for Financial Studies and serves finance faculty, researchers, doctoral students, and academic libraries worldwide.
• Review of Asset Pricing Studies (RAPS) Peer-reviewed academic journal focused on asset pricing theory, empirical work, and methodological advances. Published in partnership with Oxford University Press and targeted at finance faculty, researchers, doctoral students, and academic libraries.
• Review of Corporate Finance Studies (RCFS) Peer-reviewed academic journal covering corporate finance, financial intermediation, and household finance topics. Published in partnership with Oxford University Press and targeted at finance faculty, researchers, doctoral students, and academic libraries.
• SFS Cavalcade North America Annual academic conference covering all areas of finance, featuring parallel sessions and paper presentations, jointly organized by the RFS, RAPS, and RCFS journals. Includes dual-submission options linking conference papers to journal review. Targeted at finance faculty, researchers, and doctoral students.
• SFS Cavalcade Asia-Pacific Annual academic conference covering all areas of finance held in the Asia-Pacific region, jointly organized by the RFS, RAPS, and RCFS journals. Includes dual-submission options to SFS journals. Targeted at finance faculty, researchers, and doctoral students in the Asia-Pacific region.
• RCFS Winter Conference
• RAPS/RCFS Europe Conference

Quantifiable outcome

• Cavalcade recognized as best large finance conference based on subsequent publication rates in TOP3 finance journals
• +1 more outcomes

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Scale indicators12 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Others

• Cambridge University Press: Academic publisher of finance and economics journals and books. Relevant adjacent player because SFS depends on academic publishers (currently OUP) for distribution and could face them as alternative publishing partners.
• Elsevier: Largest academic publisher globally, with significant finance and economics journal holdings. Adjacent peer relevant to SFS in scholarly publishing infrastructure and as competitor for high-quality finance research submissions.
• Wiley: Major academic and scholarly publisher with finance and economics journals in its portfolio. Adjacent peer relevant to SFS's journal distribution model and potential competitive threat as publisher of competing finance journals.
• Oxford University Press: Publishing partner to SFS that distributes RFS, RAPS, and RCFS via academic.oup.com. Adjacent peer in academic scholarly publishing infrastructure relevant to SFS's journal business model.

Broad incumbents

• National Bureau of Economic Research: Large, established nonprofit research organization producing working papers and convening academic economists. Comparable to SFS in operating as a nonprofit that curates and disseminates high-quality economic research, though broader than SFS's finance-only focus.
• INFORMS: Large professional society for operations research and analytics that publishes numerous journals and hosts major conferences. Comparable to SFS in operating a multi-journal society model serving quantitative academic disciplines with overlapping researcher audiences.

Direct peers

• American Finance Association: Premier nonprofit academic society for finance research that publishes the Journal of Finance and Journal of Finance & Public Policy. Most direct functional peer to SFS — both operate as member-based scholarly societies publishing top-tier finance journals and hosting conferences.
• Western Finance Association: Academic association that sponsors the Journal of Financial Economics and an annual meeting. Comparable to SFS in scope (financial economics scholarship), governance model (academic society), and outputs (premier journal + annual conference).
• European Finance Association: Europe-based academic society that publishes the Review of Finance and hosts the annual EFA meeting. Directly comparable to SFS in mission, journal + conference model, and target audience of academic finance researchers.
• Financial Management Association: International finance academic association publishing Financial Management and the Journal of Financial Markets, Organizations and Money. Directly comparable to SFS as a membership organization offering journal publication venues and annual conferences for finance scholars.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/society-for-financial-studies
• Xx.com/sfsjournals

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles2 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

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Frequently asked questions about Society for Financial Studies