Continuing Risks

Risks will soon celebrate its tenth anniversary. We would like to take this opportunity to thank all authors, readers, and reviewers of the past decade. Ten years ago, Risks was the new journal in the class; a journal that entered a competitive classroom with enough self-confidence to believe that it had a role to play there. This new journal immediately became the rebellious student in the class. Risks stood up against conventions and challenged the power of habits. Risks had, and still has, some unique features in terms of both its format and content that make it stand out from its peers.

• Risks is a rare journal that is dedicated to modelling and understanding risks where the two areas of application, finance and insurance, are equally important and represented. Most other journals in the class are either actuarial journals that also welcome economic and financial contributions or financial economics journals that also welcome applications in insurance. Risks is neither finance nor insurance by origin. It is finance and insurance. This is possible because Risks was born after it was realized and generally acknowledged, during the 1990s and 2000s, that finance and insurance are sister disciplines that rely, draw, and depend heavily on each other. Standing firmly on both legs, finance and insurance, makes Risks meritorious.
• Risks is a rare journal that considers itself inclusive rather than exclusive. Exclusive journals aim for distinction within their exclusive circles of academic society. Exclusive journals can sometimes evolve into excluding journals more than they know. Inclusive journals strive, instead, to stretch the circles of the academic community within which they exist. This inclusion encompasses all dimensions, including geography, affiliation, the academic age of the authors, and line and originality of thought—far beyond gender and ethnicity. For example, Risks publishes non-quantitative research on risks relevant to finance and insurance; Risks considers theoretical accounting to be a discipline of financial economics; Risks publishes quantitative research on risks with uncertain but potential applicability in finance and insurance. However, the scope remains finance and insurance.
• Risks is a rare journal in its openness. Openness here means, abstractly, decentralized decision making. The journal is managed by editorial and academic management. In that sense, it is a centralized journal. However, many Special Issues are academically managed by dedicated scholars around the world who are selected by the journal management. They contribute directly to setting the standards of the journal. Risks trusts its Special Issue editors enough to let them participate in the journal’s direction. In that sense, it is also a decentralized journal. Openness also means concretely Open Access. Risks publishes Open Access only. Therefore, the authors bear the costs of the publication. Authors who think it is ethically wrong to charge for publication or that publication in Risks is expensive should compare it with the Open Access option in other journals, many of which are under the auspices of associations or scientific societies. It is just a different business model.

When Risks was born, it was the new, rebellious classmate. Today, it retains this attitude. We believe that time has proven that there was and still is a natural space for Risks in that role. Risks is not the new journal in class anymore. However, it is still standing equally and solidly, yet agilely, on two legs; inclusive in all dimensions; open-minded as well as Open Access. It also continues to challenge the conventional powers of publication and standard thinking patterns. We hope the new journal in class stays fresh and wise for many years.