An evaluation of research authorship by gender in major academic and professional accounting journals

Abstract

The role of gender is an important issue in the accounting field, both in practice and in higher education. This study provides a longitudinal analysis of female authorship of articles published in six major accounting journals, three academic journals and three professional journals: The Accounting Review , Contemporary Accounting Research , Journal of Accounting Research , The CPA Journal , the Journal of Accountancy, and Strategic Finance . Articles are classified into 11 different research categories and comparisons of authorship by gender are made across these categories. Results reveal that female academicians are making a significantly greater contribution to accounting research than in the past, both in academic and professional journals, reflecting their increasing representation and acceptance among accounting academics. This study makes a unique contribution by its analysis regarding the factors of gender, research topic area, and practice versus academic journals. The study extends prior gender publication research by examining how female researchers’ performance has changed relative to that of males over time.