A Citation Analysis of Risk, Insurance, and Actuarial Research: 2001 through 2005

ABSTRACT The bibliographies of 17 risk journals were evaluated to determine the relative influence of these risk journals on risk, insurance, and actuarial research published during the years 2001 through 2005. Tables are provided that show the frequency with which each of these journals cites itself and the other sample journals. The journals are ranked, within two groups (risk and insurance group and actuarial group), based on their total influence (total citations including and excluding self-citations) and their per article influence (per article citations including and excluding self-citations). Finally, the most frequently cited articles from each risk journal are reported. INTRODUCTION Given the central importance of scholarly journals to the growth, development, and legitimacy of any academic discipline, it is critical that relevant parties understand the relative quality of journals within a discipline. Researchers need objective information on journal quality in making decisions regarding where to submit their work for possible publication. Those involved with making decisions regarding a faculty member's tenure, promotion, or merit pay need to understand relative journal quality in the faculty member's discipline in order to properly evaluate his or her research productivity. Since such decisions often involve scholars from disciplines other than that of the person being evaluated, objective analysis of journal quality can be invaluable in helping a faculty member document the quality of his or her publication outlets. Journal editors can also benefit from objective information regarding the quality of their journal relative to other journals in the field, potentially using this information to shape future editorial decisions. Finally, libraries and other institutions needing to make decisions about which journals to purchase in a particular discipline, given limited resources, also benefit from an understanding of relative journal quality. Ferguson, Dorfman, and Ferguson (2005) provide greater detail and discussion of issues such as these, as well as other theoretical and practical problems in determining scholarly journal quality. Considering such potential import to numerous stakeholders, it is not surprising that studies in various academic disciplines have evaluated the quality of journals. Over the years, for example, numerous such studies have been published in the finance discipline (see Mabry and Sharplin, 1985; Alexander and Mabry, 1994; Zivney and Reichenstein, 1994; McNulty and Boekeloo, 1999; Borokhovich, Bricker, and Simkins, 2000; Chung, Cox, and Mitchell, 2001; Pinkowitz, 2002; Oltheten, Theoharakis, and Travlos, 2005). A number of journal quality studies have also been performed in the insurance field. Outreville and Malouin (1985) evaluate journal quality based on the opinions of American Risk and Insurance Association members. McNamara and Kolbe (1996) base their study on a survey of business school deans. Baur, Zivney, and Wells (1996) analyze journal subscription practices at universities. Hollman and Zietz (1998) analyze citations appearing in the Journal of Insurance Issues (JII). Ferguson, Dorfman, and Ferguson (2005) survey risk and insurance academics to assess journal quality categorized by perceived utility and examined individual, institutional, and journal-related factors influencing expert opinion of journal quality. Finally, Colquitt (1997, 2003) evaluates the impact that various insurance and actuarial journals and articles have had on research in the discipline by examining citations to leading insurance and actuarial journals found in a sample of insurance, actuarial, and finance journals. Colquitt (1997) analyzes citations during the period 1991 through 1995, while Colquitt (2003) analyzes citations appearing during the years 1996 through 2000. While citation analysis is common in other disciplines and generally considered to be the most comprehensive method of evaluating the quality of academic journals (see footnote 1 of Colquitt, 2003), the Colquitt studies are the only extensive citation analyses in the insurance and actuarial fields. …