10/09/2026
Opportunities for publishing in top-quartile Elsevier Scopus journals in special issues published by MDPI.
This summer, manuscript collection campaigns started in the following journals and thematic sections with guest editors from Bulgarian higher education institutions:
1) Special Issue "Applied Risk Analytics in Banking and Insurance" of the Journal of Risk and Financial Management (ISSN 1911-8074) – Prof. Andrey Zahariev, Prof. Silvia Trifonova, Assoc. Prof. Plamen Ivanov – https://www.mdpi.com/journal/jrfm/special_issues/EM61V78VA6
2) Special Issue "Regional Development and Circular Economy Transitions" of the journal Economies (ISSN 2227-7099) – Prof. Galina Zaharieva – https://www.mdpi.com/journal/jrfm/special_issues/EM61V78VA6
3) Special Issue "Fiscal Policy and Public Debt Management" of the journal Economies (ISSN 2227-7099) – Dr. Silvia Zarkova – https://www.mdpi.com/journal/economies/special_issues/20077303S0
4) Special Issue "Inflation Shocks, Cost of Living Pressures, and Socioeconomic Resilience: Impacts on Households and Businesses" of the journal Economies (ISSN 2227-7099) – Assoc. Prof. Dr. Yanko Hristozov – https://www.mdpi.com/journal/economies/special_issues/VOM8YS0839
The special issue "Applied Risk Analytics in Banking and Insurance" of JRFM aims to bring together high-quality theoretical, empirical, and applied research dedicated to the rapidly changing nature of risk in banking, insurance, and the financial system as a whole. Contributions are welcome on topics including, but not limited to:
• Credit risk and creditworthiness assessment – credit scoring, default probability modeling, credit risk for SMEs and households, alternative data sources, and borrower assessment;
• Market and liquidity risk – Value-at-Risk, Expected Shortfall, liquidity management, portfolio risk, and stress testing;
• Systemic risk and financial stability – interconnectedness among financial institutions, propagation of financial shocks, banking sector instability, network analysis, and macro-financial risk;
• Banking regulation and capital adequacy – Basel III/IV, macroprudential regulation, regulatory risk, and capital requirements;
• Insurance risk and underwriting analysis – insurance pricing, actuarial models, Solvency II, and IFRS 17;
• Artificial intelligence and machine learning in risk management – predictive models, explainable AI (XAI), big data applications, and algorithmic decision-making;
• Climate and ESG financial risks – climate stress testing, physical and transition risks, sustainable banking and insurance;
• Operational and cyber risk – institutional resilience, cybersecurity, and the evolving operational risk environment;
• Monetary policy, banking, and financial risk – the transmission mechanism of monetary policy, interest rate risk, bank profitability, liquidity conditions, and financial stability;
• Behavioral aspects of risk – decision-making under uncertainty, behavioral finance, and institutional responses to risk;
• FinTech and risks related to the digitalization of finance – digital banking, blockchain, crypto-assets, RegTech, SupTech, and emerging technological risks;
• New quantitative and econometric approaches to risk analysis – panel models, time series, stress-testing models, forecasting, machine learning, and innovative databases.
Contributions examining financial risk from a macroeconomic, institutional, regulatory, spatial, or political-economic perspective are also encouraged.
The aim of the special issue is not to be limited solely to traditional quantitative risk management models, but to foster a broader discussion of how financial risk arises, how it is distributed, how it is measured, and how it is managed in contemporary banking and insurance systems.
About the journal: The Journal of Risk and Financial Management (JRFM) is an international peer-reviewed open-access scientific journal published by MDPI and indexed in Scopus, as well as in other leading international academic databases. The journal currently holds the following citation ranking:
Q1 – CiteScore, Business, Management and Accounting (miscellaneous);
Q1 – Business, Management and Accounting (miscellaneous).
This makes the special issue an attractive opportunity for international publication for researchers in the fields of banking, finance, insurance, economics, risk management, and related scientific disciplines.
Information about the special issue and manuscript submission: The full call for papers, thematic scope, and information on the manuscript submission procedure are available at the following address: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/jrfm/special_issues/EM61V78VA6
Manuscript submission deadline: July 1, 2027.
All submitted manuscripts will undergo the standard JRFM peer-review and editorial evaluation procedure. Submitted articles must contain original scientific results and must not be under simultaneous consideration for publication in another scientific journal. The process from manuscript submission, through peer review, to publication and subsequent indexing in Scopus, takes up to 2 months.
Guest editors of the special issue "Applied Public Finance and Fiscal Analysis" are:
• Prof. Dr. Andrey Zahariev – University of Insurance and Finance (VUZF), Bulgaria;
• Prof. Dr. Silvia Trifonova-Pramatarova – University of National and World Economy (UNWE), Bulgaria;
• Assoc. Prof. Dr. Plamen Ivanov – Middlesex University, UK, and University of Insurance and Finance (VUZF), Bulgaria
Full information about the special issue:
https://www.mdpi.com/journal/jrfm/special_issues/EM61V78VA6
