http://fisher.osu.edu/fin/journal/jfidd.htm THE BIG NOISE FROM COLUMBUS: THE JOURNAL OF FINANCE BREAKS THE NASDAQ SCANDAL, Investment Dealers Digest, May 22, 1995. (excerpt follows...) If you think the Journal of Finance is just another dusty, ivory-towered publication for egghead professors, ask the Nasdaq Stock Market. Last year the Journal accepted for publication a study of Nasdaq spreads by two assistant professors. Then the fireworks began. The paper, by Vanderbilt professor William Christie and Ohio State Professor Paul Schultz, pointed to alleged tacit collusion by Nasdaq market makers. The article caught attention of the popular pres, and the ensuing stories triggered dozens of class action lawsuits by lawyers on behalf of investors. Then the Justice Department, which also read the article, launched a massive anti-trust probe of the Nasdaq market. "Nobody expected this to happen," says Rene Stulz, the professor who edits the 50-year old publication from Columbus, Ohio. But it's not the first time a Journal of Finance article made waves. In 1992, the Journal published a paper by two University of Chicago academics, Eugene Fama and Ken French, disputing the value of the famous volatility measure, Beta. The led to headlines across the globe proclaiming "Beta is dead" and some handwringing at investment shops that based their portfolios on Beta. Stulz says dozens of papers are still rolling in trying to refute the original paper. The editors of the Journal could also smirk when the first Nobel prizes in economics were awarded to financial economists. The work for two of the winners, Harry Markowitz and William Sharpe, had appeared there also. As for the third winner, Merton Miller: "He's an associate editor," says Stulz. If the Journal can't exactly move markets, it has enough real world impact that Stulz counts many Wall Street investment banks and money management firms among his 8,000 readers. Five issues a year will only cost you $57. If you haven't done original research, don't bother sending in an article. Only about 6% to 7% of submitted pieces ever get published (6.4% to be exact, says the professor); at that, the Journal charges $70 just to read your paper. Nasdaq learned this the hard way when it submitted a rebuttal article to the Journal and got rejected. This rejection did not escape the attention of the lawyers suing Nasdaq market makers. In fact, they included in one of their briefs. "A lame industry rebuttal has been rejected twice by the Journal of Finance, once on peer review, and again on appeal to the editors." (Nasdaq has since gone to hire a group of well known economists, including Miller, to prepare studies refuting the original paper. All papers-Nasdaq or academic-get the same treatment.