About the Journal

Financial Services Reveiw (FSR) is the official publication of the Academy of Financial Services. FSR is a Diamond Open Access Journal, which means there are no fees or restrictions for access to or submission of research and no Article Processing Fees if published. The purpose of this double-blind peer-reviewed academic journal is to encourage research that examines the impact of financial issues on individuals. In contrast to the many corporate or institutional journals that are available in finance, the focus of this journal is on individual financial management.

FSR provides a forum for those who are interested in the individual perspective on issues in the areas of Financial Planning, Financial Counseling, Financial Literacy, Banking/Banking Services, Education in Financial Services, Employee Benefits, Estate and Tax Planning,  Insurance Planning, Investments, Mutual Funds, Non-bank Financial Institutions, Pension and Retirement, Planning, and Real Estate. While the annual meeting held each fall provides an opportunity to discuss and present these topics to colleagues, the journal allows a much wider audience of those interested in this subject matter.

To encourage the development of curricula in financial services at the university level, appropriate pedagogical papers are accepted for publication. Manuscripts are encouraged that present ideas about appropriate content, methods of teaching, and materials.

Contributions from practitioners who are actively involved in financial planning, financial services, and professional associations are also encouraged. While the primary purpose of this journal is the publication of traditional academic empirical research, the Academy believes that it is important to encourage the cross fertilization of ideas and an exchange of information of interest to both academicians and practitioners. Thus, the editor seeks manuscripts from practitioners that present innovative ideas and new information in financial planning and services or suggest new avenues of research for academics.

Plagerism: The Journal takes publication integrity very seriously. All submissions are routinely checked for plagiarism. The journal uses https://www.crossref.org/services/similarity-check/ to screen submissions for plagiarism.

Copyright:

All papers published in the Journal are covered by CC BY-NC 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International.

This license requires that reusers give credit to the creator. It allows reusers to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the material in any medium or format, for noncommercial purposes only. Credit must be given to you, the creator. Only noncommercial use of an author's work is permitted. Noncommercial means not primarily intended for or directed towards commercial advantage or monetary compensation.

In addition, FSR grants to the UGA Libraries a worldwide, non-exclusive license to all content published by the Journal, including metadata, that is necessary to publish, transmit, and index the Journal and to preserve its content over time. 

ISBN (print): 1873-5673

ISBN (electronic): 1057-0810

 

Publication Ethics and Publication Malpractice Statement

Introduction
Financial Services Review is committed to upholding the highest standards of publication ethics and takes all possible measures against any publication malpractice. All authors submitting their work to the journal for publication as original articles attest that the submitted works represent their contributions and have not been copied or plagiarized in whole or in part from other works. The following outlines the journal’s standards and policies regarding ethical publishing behavior.

The Financial Services Review (FSR) publication ethics and publication malpractice statement is aligned with the Code of Conduct and Best-Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors (Committee on Publication Ethics, 2011) as described below:

Editor Responsibilities

Publication Decisions

The editor is responsible for deciding which of the papers submitted to FSR will be published. The editor will evaluate manuscripts without regard to the authors' race, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief, ethnic origin, citizenship, or political philosophy. The decision will be based on the paper’s importance, originality and clarity, and the study’s validity and its relevance to FSR’s scope. Current legal requirements regarding libel, copyright infringement, and plagiarism will also be considered.

Confidentiality

The editor, associate editors, and associated editorial staff must not disclose any information about a submitted manuscript to anyone other than the corresponding author, reviewers, potential reviewers, other editorial advisors, and the publisher (The Academy of Financial Services), as appropriate.

Disclosure and Conflicts of Interest

Unpublished materials disclosed in a submitted paper will not be used by the editor or the members of the editorial board for their own research purposes without the author's explicit written consent.

Reviewers' Responsibilities

Contribution to Editorial Decisions

The peer-reviewing process assists the editor and the editorial board in making editorial decisions and may also serve the author in improving the paper.

Promptness

Any selected referee who feels unqualified to review the research reported in a manuscript or knows that its prompt review will be impossible should notify the editor and withdraw from the review process.

Confidentiality

Any manuscripts received for review must be treated as confidential documents. They must not be disclosed to or discussed with others except as authorized by the editor.

Standards of Objectivity

Reviews should be conducted objectively. Personal criticism of the author is inappropriate. Referees should express their views clearly with supporting arguments. 

Acknowledgement of Sources

Reviewers should identify cases in which relevant published work referred to in the paper has not been cited in the reference section. They should point out whether observations or arguments derived from other publications are accompanied by the respective source. Reviewers will notify the editor of any substantial similarity or overlap between the manuscript under consideration and any other published paper of which they have personal knowledge.

Disclosure and Conflict of Interest

Privileged information or ideas obtained through peer review must be kept confidential and not used for personal advantage. Reviewers should not consider manuscripts in which they have conflicts of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships or connections with any of the authors, companies, or institutions associated with the papers.

Authors' Duties

Reporting Standards

Authors of original research reports should present an accurate account of the work performed as well as an objective discussion of its significance. Underlying data should be represented accurately in the paper. A paper should contain sufficient detail and references to permit others to replicate the work. Fraudulent or knowingly inaccurate statements constitute unethical behavior and are unacceptable.

Data Access and Retention

Authors could be asked to provide the raw data of their study together with the paper for editorial review and should be prepared to make the data publicly available if practicable. In any event, authors should ensure accessibility of such data to other competent professionals for at least ten years after publication (preferably via an institutional or subject-based data repository or other data center), provided that the confidentiality of the participants can be protected and legal rights concerning proprietary data do not preclude their release.

Originality, Plagiarism, and Acknowledgement of Sources

Authors will submit only entirely original works, and will appropriately cite or quote the work and/or words of others. Publications that have been influential in determining the nature of the reported work should also be cited.

Multiple, Redundant, or Concurrent Publication

As a general rule, papers describing essentially the same research should not be published in more than one journal. Submitting the same paper to more than one journal constitutes unethical publishing behavior and is unacceptable.

Manuscripts which have been published as copyrighted material elsewhere cannot be submitted. In addition, manuscripts under review by FSR should not be resubmitted to copyrighted publications. However, by submitting a manuscript, the author(s) retain the rights to the published material. In case of publication they permit the use of their work under a CC-BY license [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/], which allows others to copy, distribute and transmit the work as well as to adapt the work and to make commercial use of it.

Authorship of the Paper

Authorship should be limited to those who have made a significant contribution to the conception, design, execution, or interpretation of the reported study. All those who have made significant contributions should be listed as co-authors.

The corresponding author ensures that all contributing co-authors and no uninvolved persons are included in the author list. The corresponding author will also verify that all co-authors have approved the final version of the paper and have agreed to its submission for publication.

Disclosure and Conflicts of Interest

All authors should include a statement disclosing any financial or other substantive conflicts of interest that may be construed to influence the results or interpretation of their manuscript. All sources of financial support for the project should be disclosed.

Fundamental Errors in Published Works

When an author discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in his/her own published work, it is the author’s obligation to promptly notify the FSR editor or publisher and to cooperate with the editor to retract or correct the paper in form of an erratum.

Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI)

FSR is committed to maintaining the highest standards of ethical publication. Authors are expected to adhere to principles of honesty, transparency, and integrity in the preparation of manuscripts. All submissions must be original work, and any potential conflicts of interest should be disclosed at the time of submission.

The use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools in the research and writing process is permitted but must be clearly acknowledged in the manuscript. AI-generated content should not replace the intellectual contributions of manuscript authors. Authors are responsible for verifying the accuracy, validity, and originality of any AI-assisted output. Any data, results, or text generated with the assistance of AI tools must be thoroughly reviewed and validated by the authors.

Plagiarism, including AI-facilitated plagiarism, will not be tolerated. FSR employs plagiarism detection software to ensure compliance.

Ethical Oversight

Handling of Ethical Complaints

FSR takes seriously all ethical issues related to submitted manuscripts and published articles. If any ethical violation is detected, such as plagiarism, data fabrication, or multiple submissions, the editor will take appropriate action, which may include publication of an erratum, retraction of the paper, or informing relevant institutions.

The Financial Services Review Publication Process

References

Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). (2011, March 7). Code of Conduct and Best-Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors. Retrieved from http://publicationethics.org/files/Code_of_conduct_for_journal_editors_Mar11.pdf

Psychopen. (2024). Publication Ethics and Publication Malpractice Statement.  https://psychopen.eu/publication_ethics_and_publication_malpractice_statement.pdf