1. Introduction
   1. When considering submitting a paper to the Journal of Property Investment & Finance (JPIF), or any other journal, there are a number of key steps that you should follow to increase the chances of your paper being accepted.
   2. In recent years, the rejection rate of JPIF has been increasing significantly as many submissions are not even of a standard to be sent out for review.
   3. A poor submission wastes the time of the author(s) and the editorial team at the journal.
2. Preparation
   1. Always read and follow the “Author Guidelines” on the journal’s website. These notes show you how to format your paper and provides details of the ambit of the journal. See: https://www.emeraldgrouppublishing.com/journal/jpif#author-guidelines
   2. Make sure that your paper matches the ambit of the journal. JPIF is a PROPERTY journal and only publishes papers related to investment property:
      “JPIF does not publish papers relating to housing policy, agriculture and forestry, general (non-property) investments or anything that is not related to real estate".
   3. All papers need to be well referenced, but when submitting to JPIF (or any other journal) it is essential that your paper references articles previously published in JPIF (or the journal in question).
   4. ALWAYS copy-edit the paper fully before submitting your paper. Too many papers are submitted with poor spelling, poor grammar and typos. If English is not your first language, get your paper copy-edited by a native speaker before submitting.
   5. You may find it useful to know that Emerald collaborates with Editage to provide authors with expert editorial support, including language editing and translation. For information on Editage services and fees, please see https://authorservices.emeraldpublishing.com/. Please note that there is no obligation to use Editage and using this service does not guarantee publication.
3. Content
   1. It may seem an odd thing to emphasise but make sure that your paper says something. This answers the “so what?” question. Too many submissions are produced “by rote” and are more simple descriptive data analysis (or heavy econometric analysis) that add nothing to the existing literature. A strong quantitative analysis is not sufficient to warrant publication in itself; the analysis needs to be relevant and pertinent as the Editorial Board will want to see evidence on how the analysis and the results can be applied in practice. This is a key requirement for JPIF.
   2. Before a paper can be sent for review, it needs to:
      1. Incorporate all the existing literature on the topic from both Real Estate journals and other related disciplines.
      2. Provide a full exposition in the introduction and conclusions on why your paper is important.
      3. The conclusions should be a substantive part of the paper.
      4. Always link your paper to practice. Show how your work can improve the market understanding of property investment and practice.
   3. Read previous papers from JPIF to get a sense of the style and structure of papers that have been accepted.

Following the above guidelines will greatly assist getting your paper published in JPIF.