Top Accounting Journals Research Articles

Has Concentration in the Top Accounting Journals Changed Over Time?

SYNOPSIS Prior work has found high levels of concentration in top academic accounting journals relative to finance, management, and marketing. Moreover, concentration has been increasing in accounting while concentration in other disciplines has been decreasing or remaining about the same. We investigate whether recent efforts by the American Accounting Association, among others, have altered these trends. We examine concentration trends in top accounting journals from 1990 to 2014 and compare these trends with those in other major business school disciplines. Ratios of publications to faculty are lowest for accounting across all years, suggesting that accounting has relatively fewer “slots” available for top journal publications than other disciplines. In addition, our results suggest that concentration has decreased in accounting journals in recent years but that concentration has also decreased in other business disciplines. Thus, accounting has retained its position as a discipline where publications in top journals seem more difficult to attain relative to other business disciplines.

Rating Scales in Accounting Research: The Impact of Scale Points and Labels

ABSTRACTRating scales are one of the most widely used tools in behavioral research. Decisions regarding scale design can have a potentially profound effect on research findings. Despite this importance, an analysis of extant literature in top accounting journals reveals a wide variety of rating scale compositions. The purpose of this paper is to experimentally investigate the impact of scale characteristics on participants' responses. Two experiments are conducted that manipulate the number of scale points and the corresponding labels to study their influence on the statistical properties of the resultant data. Results suggest that scale design impacts the statistical characteristics of response data and emphasize the importance of labeling all scale points. A scale with all points labeled effectively minimizes response bias, maximizes variance, maximizes power, and minimizes error. This analysis also suggests variance may be maximized when the scale length is set at 7 points. Although researchers commonly believe using additional scale points will maximize variance, results indicate increasing scale points beyond 7 does not increase variance. Taken together, a fully labeled 7-point scale may provide the greatest benefits to researchers. The importance of scale labels provides a significant contribution to accounting research as only 5 percent of the accounting studies reviewed have reported scales with all points labeled.

Stagnation in accounting education research

A number of prominent scholars have argued that research published in the top accounting journals has stagnated. As evidence of research stagnation, these authors note that much of the research published in the top accounting journals relates to a limited group of topics, uses similar research methods, and is based largely on the same underlying theories. We argue in this paper that the same concerns noted for accounting research in general are evident in accounting education research. A historical analysis of the literature shows that most published accounting education articles are not empirical, still relate to a few general topics, and ignore several issues that we believe are important to accounting education practice. Empirical articles generally rely on the survey research method, with relatively few studies using experimental (or even quasi-experimental) methods. In addition to providing evidence from the literature to show that accounting education research has stagnated, we offer some suggestions for overcoming this problem and for advancing the literature.

Corporate social responsibility research in accounting

We review research on corporate social responsibility (CSR) published in 13 top accounting journals over the last decade. We begin with a brief discussion of the data that archival researchers have used to measure CSR. Next, we conduct our review in four parts: (1) determinants of CSR; (2) the relation between CSR and financial performance; (3) consequences of CSR; and (4) the roles of CSR disclosure and assurance. We summarize the accounting literature in these areas and comment on how accounting researchers can use their skill sets with regard to specific issues. Within each area, we present some suggestions for future CSR research in accounting.

An Evaluation of the General vs. Specialist Nature of Top Accounting Journals

Academic research has a role in advancing and enlightening society in broad areas of study. Many forces interact to influence the directions, topics, and methodologies used in research. In this paper, we explore and discuss the relationships between the top general-interest and specialist accounting journals. We test whether top journals (e.g., “Top 3” or “Top 6”), relative to a set of high-quality but specialist journals, (1) are perceived to be general in what they will consider publishing, (2) have historically published diverse sets of articles, (3) have editorial board members with diverse sets of interests and skills, and (4) publish the most highly cited articles by topic area and methodology. The results suggest that some of the top journals are not as general as their mission statements suggest and that they do not publish the most highly cited articles in some topic areas and methodologies. These results may help institutions consider whether “counting” only the top journals is an appropriate measure for judging faculty scholarship. The results suggest that counting articles in the traditional top journals alone will be problematic if institutions want to promote research in a broad range of accounting topics and issues in the profession.

Publishing Book Reviews In Accounting Journals: A Lost Art?

In a profession dedicated to disseminating knowledge, accounting journals may be missing an opportunity to share knowledge. This article presents original research on dozens of top accounting journals and whether they publish book reviews, including benefits and drawbacks of reviewing and specific key elements to avoid and to include in reviews. The article considers the basic elements of a book review, describes the advantages of publishing book reviews, and provides ideas for how a book review can be published in accounting journals. Results indicate that accounting journals’ de-emphasis of book reviews might deprive academics of sharing and dissemination of knowledge that are an essential part of re-search and publication – especially in a postdigital world.

Pacific Accounting Review – the first 25 years

Purpose – In 2012, Pacific Accounting Review (PAR) completed its 25th year of existence. This paper aims to review all articles published in PAR as a report on the “stewardship” of the journal. Design/methodology/approach – Research papers published in PAR are analysed by topic, research methodology, author and institutional affiliation. This approach follows prior reviews in PAR. A comparison is also made with PAR over the period 1988-1996 and Accounting and Finance over the period 1973-1999 and the “top accounting journals” over the period 1990-2007. Findings – The analysis indicates that PAR publishes papers across a wide range of topics, but uses research methodologies that are consistent with mainstream accounting research (as undertaken by the “top accounting journals”). The authors of PAR are concentrated in New Zealand and Australia, as is the source data. No strong trends were perceived in the data. In conclusion, PAR can be characterised as a broadly based accounting and finance journal that is ...

Is Accounting Research Stagnant?

I accepted the invitation to present my thoughts to the American Accounting Association Executive Committee on whether accounting research has become stagnant for several reasons. First, I believe the question is important because the answer has widespread implications, one of which is the extent to which accounting research will remain an important part of the accounting academic profession in the years to come. In order to maintain the current stature of accounting research or to increase its importance, we need to ensure that we produce research that someone cares about. Second, there appears to be a growing sentiment among some accounting researchers that much of the research currently published in the top accounting journals is too similar, with too much emphasis on technique rather than on whether the research addresses an interesting or important question. My final reason was more self-serving. I thought this would provide a good opportunity to reflect on an important issue, and that committing to share my thoughts in a public forum would force me to give the issue the serious consideration it warrants. My comments below describe some conclusions I reached based on what others have written about this issue, discussions with colleagues, and my own reflections.

Accounting Researchers in Asia Pacific: A Study on Publication Productivity and Citation Analysis

Research quality and productivity are the important dimensions that affect the employability and rewards of university faculty members. Generally, the publication achievement of university faculty members can be measured by the number of papers published in reputable journals as well as the number of citations obtained from their publications. This study examines the publication productivity of accounting faculty members of Asia Pacific universities in the top accounting journals for the period 2000 to 2010. The present study also measures the publication achievement using the number of citations of the researchers’ publications in these journals for the same period based on the search from Google Scholar, Scopus and Social Science Citation Index. The study found that Hun-Tong Tan is the most productive researcher in the top 18 accounting journals, followed by R. G. Walker and Michael Bradbury. When a sub-set of the top 5 accounting journals is used, the top three researchers are Hun-Tong Tan (NTU), Clive S. Lennox (HKUST) and Robert H. Chenhall (Monash U). Using the citation count, the present study found that T.J. Wong (CUHK), Robert H. Chenhall, and Ferdinand A. Gul (Monash U) obtained the highest total citations from both Google Scholar and Scopus. However, when Social Science Citation Index is used, T.J. Wong, Robert H. Chenhall, and Hun-Tong Tan are the top three. The results of this study provide the evidence of the contributions by the Asia Pacific universities’ faculties towards high quality accounting research and publications over the last decade.

Publishing In The Accounting Journals: Is There A Gender Bias?

<p class="MsoBlockText" style="text-align: justify; margin: 0in 37.45pt 0pt 0.5in;"><span style="font-style: normal; font-size: 10pt; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">To publish or not to publish?… that is the question (adapted from William Shakespeare).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>In the world of academe, the answer is short and sweet… publish or get out. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This rule holds true for both male and female faculty members, yet it is sometimes postulated that there may be some inconsistencies on how this rule applies across the genders.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>This study focuses on whether male and female accounting academics have distinctive patterns of representation as authors in top ranked accounting journals. Archival data, consisting of author information and article information was collected for two journals, <span style="text-decoration: underline;">The Accounting Review</span> and <span style="text-decoration: underline;">Journal Accounting Research</span>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>Consistent with previous research findings, preliminary results suggest that females represent a disproportionately small minority of authors in both of these two top accounting journals.</span></span></p>

Scholarly achievement and accounting journal editorial board membership

Abstract The importance of editorial boards to the peer review process makes it imperative that board members be selected on the basis of proven records of scholarly achievement as demonstrated by publications in peer-reviewed journals and subsequent citations to those publications. Although research in accounting has looked at the composition of editorial boards, the scholarly achievement of editorial board members has not been examined. The purpose of our study is to empirically investigate the scholarly achievement of editorial board members of selected accounting journals. We find that the top accounting journals may not be using the same criteria in selecting editorial board members. Further, the level of achievement of the editorial board members and their articles’ impact factors were often inconsistent with the perceived ranking of the journals in which they served. A discussion and implications of our results are also provided.

Characterizing Accounting Research

In response to concerns over the viability of the academic discipline of accounting we investigate trends in accounting research by examining papers published in six top accounting journals from 1960 to 2007. We use citations made by accounting papers as a proxy for their antecedent ideas and examine trends in citations, topics, and methodologies, in aggregate and by journal. Our results suggest that the growing body of accounting research draws increasingly from both finance and economics. Financial accounting topics and archival methodologies are becoming more dominant over time relative to other topics and methodologies, although these trends vary by journal. Although most concerns we discuss are recent, we find that the situation today is the result of trends set in motion decades ago with an explicit decision by influential researchers to move the discipline from a normative perspective to a positive perspective. Given its current state accounting research may be broadly characterized as research into the effect of economic events on the process of summarizing, analyzing, verifying, and reporting standardized financial information, and on the effects of reported information on economic events.

A Review of the Value Relevance Literature

Value relevance research empirically investigates the usefulness of accounting information to stock investors. Accounting information is denoted as value relevant if there is a statistical association between the accounting numbers and market values of equity. This review provides a comprehensive study of the value relevance literature. The review fo- cuses mainly on high-quality value relevance research from the last two decades, but it also covers seminal studies from the late 1960s. The primary focus is on research on U.S. financial data, but some international evidence is also presented. The articles are generally selected from top accounting journals. The review offers an introduction to the methodology employed within this research tradition and presents the main results from studies regarding the value relevance of the two summary measures used in financial reports, namely, earnings and book equity. Furthermore, the review describes studies on the development in value relevance over time and shows how value relevance from different accounting methods can be compared. Overall, the review provides in-depth information on the value relevance literature to readers who wish to familiarise themselves with this line of empirical accounting research.

Characterizing Accounting Research

SYNOPSIS: In response to concerns over the viability of the academic discipline of accounting, we investigate trends in accounting research by examining papers published in six top accounting journals from 1960 to 2007. We use citations made by accounting papers as a proxy for their antecedent ideas and examine trends in citations, topics, and methodologies, in aggregate and by journal. Our results suggest that the growing body of accounting research draws increasingly from both finance and economics. Financial accounting topics and archival methodologies are becoming more dominant over time relative to other topics and methodologies, although these trends vary by journal. Though most concerns we discuss are recent, we find that the situation today is the result of trends set in motion decades ago with an explicit decision by influential researchers to move the discipline from a normative perspective to a positive perspective. Given its current state, accounting research may be broadly characterized as research into the effect of economic events on the process of summarizing, analyzing, verifying, and reporting standardized financial information, and on the effects of reported information on economic events.

Ethics Education and the Role of the Symbolic Market

This study responds to suggestions that business-school faculty are promoting distorted views of human nature and out-dated notions of ethics. Specifically, the paper examines in-depth interviews with a sample of 15 faculty centrally-positioned within the field’s symbolic market, namely, academics who completed their Ph.D. programs in the same institutional space as the editors of five top accounting journals. The paper finds that ethics are for the most part important to these individuals, but that the field’s general adherence to the neoclassical economic model creates pressures that militate against a deeper concern for and more adequate treatment of the topic.

The Role of Trust in Top Accounting Journals

From management literature trust comes forward as an important element in the functioning and performance of organizations. Its role in generating legitimacy for an organization is beyond doubt. Trust is considered a variable that is observable and measurable, and furthermore trust is seen as an element of management. An important actor in the generation of trust and legitimacy is accounting for stakeholders. One of the sources in establishing the importance and role of accounting in the restoration of trust will be academic research. It would be interesting to see whether the results of academic research contribute to the debate. One would expect academic research to reflect the public and professional interest in these topics. In particular one would expect academic research to go into questions like whether trust can be measured and how, whether trust really did diminish and whether the formation and sharpening of accounting rules and standards can indeed restore trust. Combining the results from a scan of the most important accounting and management journals an alarming picture emerges. Although the importance and relevance of trust with respect to the performance and legitimacy of private organizations is beyond doubt and although we know that accounting will be an important actor in the generation of trust, there is virtually no academic research on the relationship between the formation of accounting standards and the building and restoration of trust.

Accounting Science's Contribution to the Corporate Governance and Executive Accountability Problem

Effective corporate governance and related accountability mechanisms are presumed to mitigate conflicts of interest and provide reasonable assurance that each party observes certain behavioral norms. Among the academic disciplines, one might expect that accounting would be well equipped to examine and prescribe improvements in accountability among agents in capitalist settings. But this article documents that the “top four” accounting journals in North America (The Accounting Review, Journal of Accounting Research, Journal of Accounting and Economics, and Contemporary Accounting Research; hereafter, “top” journals), which reputedly publish premier scientific articles and weigh most heavily in tenure and promotion decisions at U.S. universities, did not publish systematic critiques of ineffective corporate governance practices in the decade before Sarbanes-Oxley (2002). To explain this phenomenon, this article presents arguments and evidence that the top journals' editorial ideology of scientism, fact-value separation, methodological exclusivity, and active denigration of critical and historical reflection have obstructed rather than promoted timely awareness of corporate governance and executive accountability problems. The article then explores post-Sarbanes-Oxley opportunities for critical, institutional, and historical research on corporate accountability and governance, and identifies how they differ from as well as complement traditional positive accounting analyses. The concluding section considers the changes in institutional values that would be necessary for the top accounting journals to adopt a more methodologically inclusive and socially responsible research agenda.

Judgment and Decision Making Accounting Research: A Quest to Improve the Production, Certification, and Use of Accounting Information

This chapter reviews the judgment and decision making research (JDM) that involves the production, certification and use of accounting information. We first outline the domain of accounting information and the roles of professional accountants and other users of accounting information. We then provide a brief historical perspective on accounting JDM research. We describe the current impact of JDM accounting research on accounting research more generally in the period 1995-2002 via an analysis of JDM accounting publications in top accounting journals. We then turn to describing recent foci of JDM accounting research both quantitatively using the classifications in this Handbook and qualitatively by examining in some detail significant recent JDM accounting articles. We conclude with some observations about the future of JDM accounting research.

A profile of European accounting research: evidence from leading research journals

This paper attempts both to advance understanding about the research profile of accounting in Europe and to evaluate the role of The European Accounting Review in the dissemination of Europe-based accounting research. Empirical evidence supporting this investigation was gathered from all the papers published in thirteen top accounting journals during the period 1992 to 1997. Our results show that (i) a vast majority of European contributions to well-regarded journals are authored by scholars affiliated to British higher education organizations. Therefore, the overwhelming dominance of British accounting academics over Europe-based accounting research posits considerable doubts on the extent to which it is correct to form the notion of European accounting research. Our results suggest that such a notion is strongly shaped by one constituency of the European setting, that is, by researchers affiliated to British higher education institutions. (ii) The European Accounting Review has played a significant role in the diffusion of Europe-based accounting research. The journal constitutes the sole venue providing international visibility to scholars of eleven continental European countries. Moreover, The European Accounting Review has published a significant proportion of contributions from scholars of the other fifteen European countries. (iii) There exists limited mobility of non-English written accounting research across European countries. Lastly, the paper posits some suggestions for further work in this area.

Factors contributing to success in research and publications: insights of influential accounting authors

Abstract In the current accounting academic environment, success in research and publications is an increasingly important precondition to professional success and advancement. The objective of this study is to help accounting faculty members to better understand how they might increase their success in the research and publication arena. A survey was conducted of 119 influential accounting researchers, defined as those with annual citation counts of 4.0 or more to their bodies of work in five top accounting journals. These authors were asked to identify and rate the most important factors contributing to their success in research and publications. Over half (62) responded and listed a total of 391 items. These are organized under several major headings as an aid to readers understanding of their commonalities and areas of emphasis.