The Casualty Actuarial Society E-Forum is a nonrefereed, electronic journal produced by the Casualty Actuarial Society. The CAS is not responsible for statements or opinions expressed in the papers in this electronic publication. The CAS E-Forum is edited by the Casualty Actuarial Society E-Forum Working Group and CAS staff.

All interested persons are invited to submit papers on topics of interest to the property-casualty actuarial community. Articles need not be written by a member of the CAS, but the paper’s content must be relevant to the interests of the CAS membership.

When submitting an article for publication, E-Forum authors should:

Prepare the following:

a final electronic file of the paper in Microsoft Word or LaTeX. Note: Authors are no longer required to format papers in a specific template.
An accompanying pdf of the final paper.

Separate files for figures in JPEG or PNG format in at least 300 dpi.
Supplementary attachments/datasets (r files, .xls, etc.).

Submit the paper, pdf, figure files, and supplementary attachments/datasets via the CAS Publications submission portal on the ScholarOne website. Through the ScholarOne Author Dashboard, authors are guided through the following seven-step process:

Step 1: Type, Title, & Abstract
Step 2: Attributes
Step 3: Authors & Institutions
Step 4: Reviewers
Step 5: Details & Comments
Step 6: File Upload
Step 7: Review & Submit

Upload a signed and dated CAS Permission to Publish Form via the CAS Publications submission portal on the ScholarOne website.
Upload any supporting documentation granting permission for the use of any proprietary or copyrighted material used in the paper. Permissions documentation must also be uploaded in instances in which the author is not the copyright holder of the paper (i.e., the author’s employer owns copyright to the work).

Once an E-Forum is accepted for posting, authors will be asked to provide 100-word biographies and a 30-word description of their paper. Questions about E-Forum may be directed to Elizabeth Smith, CAS Director of Publications, esmith@casact.org.

The CAS E-Forum is posted periodically based on the number of call paper programs and independent research articles submitted. The E-Forum Working Group usually posts two to four editions during each calendar year.

Deadlines* for papers are as follows:

Winter...........November 1
Spring.............February 1
Summer................May 1
Fall.......................August 1

Deadlines falling on weekends will be changed to the next business day.
*Call Paper deadlines may differ as they may be included as presentations in various CAS Seminars. Consult the specific Call Paper Program working group for information on these deadlines.

Authors should allow six to eight weeks from the time of submission to posting on the E-Forum.

All comments or questions may be directed to Casualty Actuarial Society E-Forum Working Group.

A Statistical Note on Trend Factors: The Meaning of “R Squared” (Casualty Actuaries of the Northwest, 3/89)