There are lots of researchers whose interests are quantitative finance with mathematics or physics background. The interest thing is why it is hardly to see these people can make publications in top journals in finance e.g. journal of financial eocnomics, journal of business, journal of finance, etc.

Some possible explanations:1. "Quantitative finance" is only a small part of Finance, so QF papers will always be relatively sparse in general finance journals. Note that QF papers do exist in JF, RFS & JFE.2. QF research is often done by people who are not employed by universities. Non-academics do not have the same interest in publication as academics.3. Sometimes it is difficult to see what contribution is made by a research study. You need to make a significant contribution to get into the top journals. This applies equally to QF and other research.4. Editors of general journals may prefer papers that can be read by many of their subscribers. There are excellent specialist journals for QF, e.g. Mathematical Finance.5. People with math and physics backgrounds may not know enough economics and finance to please some referees.SV

QuoteOriginally posted by: CarolynTThere are lots of researchers whose interests are quantitative finance with mathematics or physics background. The interest thing is why it is hardly to see these people can make publications in top journals in finance e.g. journal of financial eocnomics, journal of business, journal of finance, etc.Many physics people do publish finance related articles in the condensed matter physics arxiv. See papers by bouchaud etc.Also when you see publications in finance journals by someone from a bank, you will have no idea if he used to be a physicist/mathematician or not. I know for a fact that many papers in Risk have been published by physicists etc though of course they don't say so.

I think the academic journals (which you mentioned) are likely to be dominated by people working in finance or economics departments, and who are therefore likely to be finance/economics trained. The practicioner journal are likely to have more physicists contributing. Its easier for a physicist to get a job in a bank or investment house than it is in an economics department.

QuoteIts easier for a physicist to get a job in a bank or investment house than it is in an economics department.Having seen CVs from my profs, i can say that this is not absolutely true. Economics & Business are wide areas by themselves, and departments offer very broad and diverse curricula especially at the undergrad level. I can recall as an economics undergrad i had even an elective in paedagogics.Quote5. People with math and physics backgrounds may not know enough economics and finance to please some referees.This is more than obvious in the "econophysics" class of papers. In general they lack the quality and the standards to be published in a journal like JoF, JFE or JBF.

For instance, I have neve seen Riccardo Rebonato published a paper in one of top finance journals. Few of researchers in QF can make more publications in these top journals.

Your comment about Rebonato surprises me. What do you consider a major publication ? I did not separate the w.p. from published and only included a few but you can see he published. If you consider JofF, JFE the 'major' publications, note that for the most part they serve a broader function. For general finance publications, broader than mathfinance, J. of Finance, J. Financial Economics, J. Banking and Finance, Review of Financial Studies, J. Financial and Quant, Finance [France]. Analysis and such are probably the ones read the most---I'm probably leaving a few out since all this is off the top of my head. For people with more of an economic bent, J. Math. Econ., J. Economic Theory [Harrison & Kreps] and such. However even Econometrica which is more game and statistics oriented, published the original CIR and HJM papers as well as Duffie papers. For people with more of an engineering/math bent, J. Economic Dynamics and Control, Management Science [and other INFORMs], Communications in Statistics: Simulation & Computation, Mathematics and Computers in Simulation, Operations Research, Math. Methods or O.R. etc. Some SIAM and IMA journal articles and w.p.. Every couple of years Phil. Trans. Royal Society has an issue devoted to quantitative finance. For a while several physics journals [Euro. J. Physics in particular and some like Physica _, had articles] but that seems to have diminished.Likewise you find some occasional articles in other mainstream math/engineering journals that not everyone looks at regularily like Archives for Rational Mechanics, Applied Mathematics Letters and of course the famous Artzner/Delbaen paper in Advances in Applied Mathematics. For finance people with probability bent, Theory of Probability and Applications, Prob. Theory and Related Fields, Stochastic Processes and their Applications, J. Applied Prob., Annals Applied Prob., Annales IHP Poincare, Stochastics and Stochastic Reports , There are several French journal and some German that publish articles of interest for mathfinance. I don't know about Russian journals except when Theor. Prob. & its Applications publishes translations. There are some Japanese journal but even when in English, the articles are hard to get ahold of. Of course the ones looked at by most mathfinance people are pretty well known. Rebonato Riccardo 'A Class of Aribtrage-Free Log-Normal Short Rate Two Factor Models' Applied Math.Finance 12/97 Rebonato Riccardo 'Accurate & Optimal Calibration to Co-Terminal European Swaptions in a FRA-based BGM Framework' 4/2001 Rebonato Riccardo 'Calibrating the BGM Model' <Brace-Gatarek-Musiela, forward rate,correlation> RISK 3/99 Rebonato Riccardo 'Model Risk:New Challenges, New Solutions' RISK 3/2001 Rebonato Riccardo 'Modern Pricing of Interest Rate Derivatives:LIBOR Market Model & Beyond' Princeton Press 2003 Rebonato Riccardo 'On the Pricing Implication of the Joint Lognormal Assumption for the Swaption & Cap Markets' J. Computational Finance Spring 99 Rebonato Riccardo 'On the Simultaneous Calibration of Multifactor Lognormal Interest Rate Models to Black Volatilities & to the Correlation Matrix' J. Comp. Finance Summer 99 <BGM>Rebonato Riccardo 'Term-Structure Models:A Review' 2/03 Rebonato Riccardo 'The Stochastic Volatility Libor Market Model' RISK 11/01 Rebonato Riccardo 'Which Process Gives Rise to the Observed Dependence of Swaption Implied Volatility on the Underlying?' Inter. J. Theor. & App. Finance 6/03 <CEV>Rebonato Riccardo, Dherminder Kainth 'A Two-Regime, Stochastic-Volatility Extension Of The Libor Market Model' IJT&AF 8/2004 Rebonato Riccardo, I. Cooper 'Coupling Backward Induction with Monte Carlo Simulations:A Fast Fourier Transform(FFT) Approach'App. Math. Finance 6/98 , IFA 236-1996 [monte carlo]<american, compound,binary>Rebonato Riccardo, I. Cooper 'The Limitations of Simple Two-Factor Interest Rate Models' J.Fin.Engin 3/96Rebonato Riccardo, M.T. Cardoso 'Unconstrained Fitting Of Implied Volatility Surfaces Using A Mixture Of Normals' J. Risk Fall 2004 Rebonato Riccardo, Mark Joshi 'A Joint Empirical & Theoretical Investigation of the Models of Deformation of Swaption Matrices:Implications for Model Choice' Intern. J. Theor.& App. Finance 11/02 ,wp 7/01 Rebonato Riccardo, Mark Joshi 'Assigning Future Smile Surfaces:Conditions for Uniqueness & Absence of Arbitrage' 11/02 Rebonato Riccardo, Mark Joshi 'The Kolmogorov Project' <smile,replication> 5/01 Rebonato Riccardo, Peter Jackel 'The Most General Methodology for Creating a Valid Correlation Matrix for Risk Management & Option Pricing Purposes' J. of Risk Winter 12/2000

Talk to your finance professors. They know which journals in the area of finance are top tier journals, second tier journals, and so-so journals.Quote from Svetlana"People with math and physics backgrounds may not know enough economics and finance to please some referees."

Also do not forget the differences in culture: Scientists and engineers do research and then write papers to present results. The writing is not considered that important, it is just a way to circulate results. In economics (and financial economics), writing is very important and takes a much more important share of the researcher's time, don't forget it is still social science no matter how much maths you throw in. Many Physicists, engineers, etc moving to finance do not adapt their style to this, and go about publishing as they would do in science.

QuoteOriginally posted by: CarolynTThere are lots of researchers whose interests are quantitative finance with mathematics or physics background. The interest thing is why it is hardly to see these people can make publications in top journals in finance e.g. journal of financial eocnomics, journal of business, journal of finance, etc.Academics are under great pressure to publish as it is integral to their career success. Researchers employed by banks are more focused on adding value to the business and do not have the same necessity to produce papers. Black & Scholes' original paper was rejected for publication a few times too remember.

QuoteOriginally posted by: SvetlanaSome possible explanations:1. "Quantitative finance" is only a small part of Finance, so QF papers will always be relatively sparse in general finance journals. Note that QF papers do exist in JF, RFS & JFE.2. QF research is often done by people who are not employed by universities. Non-academics do not have the same interest in publication as academics.3. Sometimes it is difficult to see what contribution is made by a research study. You need to make a significant contribution to get into the top journals. This applies equally to QF and other research.4. Editors of general journals may prefer papers that can be read by many of their subscribers. There are excellent specialist journals for QF, e.g. Mathematical Finance.5. People with math and physics backgrounds may not know enough economics and finance to please some referees.SVexcellent reasons....especially the last one..

QuoteOriginally posted by: MattFQuoteOriginally posted by: CarolynTThere are lots of researchers whose interests are quantitative finance with mathematics or physics background. The interest thing is why it is hardly to see these people can make publications in top journals in finance e.g. journal of financial eocnomics, journal of business, journal of finance, etc.Academics are under great pressure to publish as it is integral to their career success. Researchers employed by banks are more focused on adding value to the business and do not have the same necessity to produce papers. Black & Scholes' original paper was rejected for publication a few times too remember.Holy sh*t.