Do Acceptance and Publication Times Differ Across Finance Journals?

I examine the acceptance time (i.e., the time that eventually-published articles take from first-round submission to final-round acceptance) and the online/print publication times (i.e., the time that eventually-published articles take from first-round submission to online/print publication) of finance journals. I collect the publication history of articles published during 2012-2015 in the top-20 academic finance journals and in top-tier academic business journals from their websites and from the American Finance Association, European Finance Association, Financial Management Association, Society for Financial Studies, and University of Washington. I post all public data on my website and plan to continue updating it. I test the journal competition hypothesis that mean and median acceptance and publication times are the same across peer journals versus the editorial differences hypothesis that they differ across peer journals. I find that the median acceptance times of the top-five general-interest finance journals from fastest-to-slowest are Journal of Financial Economics (JFE): 9.9 months; Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis (JFQA): 10.6 months; Review of Finance (RF): 11.7 months; Review of Financial Studies (RFS): 15.5 months; and Journal of Finance (JF): 19.8 months. The mean acceptance times are similar and have the same ordering as the medians. These patterns are consistent over calendar time and consistent across the entire distribution. The median and mean online and print publication times for JF are much slower than the other four. The majority of top-20 finance journals that report acceptance times have a median acceptance time from 10.0 to 14.0 months. The three fastest are the Review of Corporate Finance Studies, Review of Asset Pricing Studies, and Financial Management. The majority of top-tier business journals that report acceptance times have a median acceptance time from 13.0 to 19.0 months. JFE, JFQA, and RF are among the fastest top-tier business journals and JF is one of the slowest top-tier business journals. The large and significant differences that I find across the top-five general-interest finance journals, the top-20 finance journals, and top-tier business journals support the editorial differences hypothesis