The network effects of publishing in finance

• We examine the network effects of publishing in finance.
• We use citations and editorial board membership data.
• The top-3 journals (JF, JFE, and RFS) published articles with connections.
• Articles appeared in other journals do not exhibit any network effects.

We study the network effects of publishing in finance. Our regression results suggest that, among the top-3 journals (Journal of Finance (JF), Journal of Financial Economics (JFE), and Review of Financial Studies (RFS)) and control for other determinants of citations, published articles with coauthor network have significant lower total citation counts. In contrast, the published articles with colleague network, on average, show significant higher total citation counts. That is, editors favor their previous coauthors but they are able to identify good papers from their colleagues. For the other 20 finance journals, we do not find any network effects.