Machine Learning, Financial Disclosures, and Risk Assessment

Dear Colleagues,

The rapid growth of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) has transformed how financial information is analyzed, interpreted, and used for decision-making. Financial disclosures, such as annual reports, MD&A sections, earnings calls, and other narrative and numerical disclosures, contain rich and complex information related to firms’ risk profiles, transparency, and future performance. Traditional analytical methods often face limitations in capturing nonlinear patterns, high-dimensional interactions, and subtle linguistic cues embedded in such disclosures.

This Special Issue invites high-quality research that applies machine learning and AI-based models, including neural networks and deep learning techniques, to predict and evaluate financial disclosure quality and various forms of financial risk. We particularly welcome studies that use structured and unstructured data to assess disclosure credibility, detect risk-related signals, forecast adverse outcomes, or enhance existing risk measures. Topics may include, but are not limited to, disclosure quality assessment, earnings risk, financial distress, market risk, operational risk, and information asymmetry.

The Special Issue will advance the accounting and finance literature by highlighting innovative methodologies, improving predictive accuracy, and offering insights with practical relevance for researchers, investors, auditors, regulators, and standard setters. 

Dr. Avishek Bhandari
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Journal of Risk and Financial Management is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.