Jean L. Heck

SAINT JOSEPH’S UNIVERSITY

 

Robert E. Jensen

TRINITY UNIVERSITY

 

AN ANALYSIS OF THE EVOLUTION OF RESEARCH CONTRIBUTIONS

BY THE ACCOUNTING REVIEW: 1926-2005
http://umiss.lib.olemiss.edu:82/record=b1038245

Abstract: In her Presidential Message to the American Accounting Association (AAA) in August, 2005, Judy Rayburn discussed the issue of the relatively low citation rate of accounting research compared to citation rates for research in finance, management, and marketing. Rayburn concluded that the low citation rate for accounting research was due to a lack of diversity in topics and research methods. In this paper, we provide a review of the AAA’s flagship journal, The Accounting Review (TAR), following its 80 years of publication and describe why some recent AAA leaders believe that significant changes should be made to the journal’s publication and editorial policies. At issue is whether scholarly accounting research is overly focused on mathematical analysis and empirical research, or “accountics” as it has sometimes been called, at the expense of research that benefits the general practice of accountancy and discovery research on more interesting topics. We conclude from our review of TAR that after mostly publishing research about accounting practices for the first 40 years, a sweeping change in editorial policy occurred in the 1960s and 1970s that narrowly defined scholarly research in accounting as that which employs accountics.

___________________
Keywords: Accounting Review, Accounting History, Positivism, Replication, Science

The corresponding author is Robert Jensen. Data reported in this paper are available by contacting Jean Heck at jean.heck@sju.edu .

Acknowledgments: The authors gratefully acknowledge the extraordinary efforts of the anonymous reviewers for their suggestions for improving the readability of the paper.  They devoted heavy amounts of time on our behalf.

 

INTRODUCTION

In 2005, the American Accounting Association (AAA) reached a milestone by publishing its quarterly flagship journal, The Accounting Review (TAR), for 80 years. The content of TAR has changed in overlapping phases over those 80 years, especially in the years since Chatfield [1975] published a review on the occasion of TAR’s 50th anniversary. Heck and Bremser [1986] later published a more statistical review of TAR’s first 60 years.

TAR was, and still is, one of the world’s leading accounting research journals. However, in its 81st year of existence, AAA leadership is questioning the focus of research published in TAR. In her Presidential Message at the AAA annual meeting in San Francisco in August, 2005, Judy Rayburn addressed the low citation rate of accounting research when compared to citation rates for research in other fields. Rayburn concluded that the low citation rate for accounting research was due to a lack of diversity in topics and research methods:

Accounting research is different from other business disciplines in the area of citations: Top-tier accounting journals in total have fewer citations than top-tier journals in finance, management, and marketing. Our journals are not widely cited outside our discipline. Our top-tier journals as a group project too narrow a view of the breadth and diversity of (what should count as) accounting research.
Rayburn [2006, p. 4]
 

The purpose of this paper is to review the evolution of TAR over its 80-year existence and illustrate how the perceptions of what it means to be a “leading scholar” in accounting changed after a monumental shift in editorial policy in the 1970s. While TAR served accountancy teachers, practitioners, and standard setters of the profession in its first 40 years, it gradually changed in ways that mirrored changes occurring at other academic journals, according to McLemee [2006] as quoted later on in this paper.

In the opinion of some, TAR has evolved into a journal that is incomprehensible and of little interest to practitioners and many accounting educators [Flesher, 1991, p. 169]. While professions like medicine, finance, and economics have benefited from seminal ideas first published in academe, it is difficult to trace innovations in accounting practice to research published in academic accounting journals. For example, many articles on ABC costing do appear in accounting research journals, but the idea for ABC costing started at the John Deere Company. Most other innovations in the profession, like dollar-value LIFO, can ultimately be traced back to the accounting industry rather than academe [Jensen, 2006a]. The harvests of “discovery research” in the accounting academy have been called into question by the practicing profession.

Ittner and Larker [2001] conducted a review of studies in managerial accounting and concluded that existing research was practice-oriented and tended to focus mainly on management fads. Case studies and field-based surveys were purportedly shallow and were not scientifically investigated. The main criticism was that results were less generalizable. Zimmerman [200, p. 412] followed up by conjecturing the following:

The literature's atheoretical approach.
It has been 15 years since Kaplan ... called for more field-based research. Although much field research has been published during this period, it has not led to the theory building and testing envisioned. Wandering the halls of corporations without tentative hypotheses has not been fruitful.

Empirical researchers should use economics-based hypotheses and emphasize the control function of accounting. The shift towards consulting-like, practice-oriented research will cause less theory development and hypotheses testing research to be conducted and all areas of accounting inquiry will suffer.

Martin [2001] countered by questioning the value of the contributions of theoretical economics applications preferred by leading academic accounting research journals

See Kaplan 1998 and Jones & Dugdale who report that contributions such as the development of ABC were not authenticated by mainstream accounting journals or professional organizations. Instead management consultants at Harvard and CAM-I had a pivotal role. So the question can be turned around. What are the major contributions from what Zimmerman refers to as the mainstream North American accounting journals?

 

Especially during the 1986-2005 period, TAR editors rejected virtually all “consulting-like, practice-oriented research.” We examined all articles published by TAR between 1986 and 2005 and found over 99 percent of TAR’s articles (excluding book/literature reviews, editorials, and memorials) contained complex mathematical equations and multivariate statistical analyses of a narrow subset of topics amenable to analysis using mathematics, management science, econometrics, and psychometrics. More traditional normative, historical, AIS, and case method studies all but disappeared from TAR. Other top accounting research journals were changing as well and became virtually equivalent to the new TAR [Dyckman and Zeff, 1984]. Because advancement of faculty in top schools required publishing in top-tier journals [Langenderfer, 1987, p. 303], it became imperative over the past three decades for doctoral programs and graduates of doctoral programs to focus more narrowly on accountics as preferred by TAR and other top-tier accounting research journals.

Initially we point out trends since Heck and Bremser [1986] analyzed the first sixty years. Leading authors across the entire 80-year history of TAR are shown in Table 1. The number of appearances is adjusted proportionately by the number of co-authors on each published paper.

Insert Table 1 About Here

Heck and Bremser [1986] showed that leading academic authors, like Littleton, Bierman, and Paton, along with practitioners like Kohler, tended to dominate authorship in the early years of TAR. We added Table 2 to show that across four twenty-year intervals, there has been a dramatic downturn in the probability that an author will have five or more TAR appearances over two decades. We find a much higher turnover of authors in recent years.

Insert Table 2 About Here

We expected that the rise in joint authorship might have increased the probabilities of particular authors to have five or more appearances, but this turned out not to be the case. Joint authorship was almost nonexistent in the early years, but the trend in joint authorship exploded in later years, as shown in Figure 1. This is consistent with the findings of Heck, Cooley, and Jensen (1990, 1991) for multiple journals of accounting research.

Insert Figure 1 About Here

Table 2 outcomes indicate that joint authorship has not increased the probability of any one author to have more than five appearances across two decades of time. We speculate that this is in large measure due to the fact that the “leading authors” in the past 20 years spread their papers out among other research journals relative to earlier periods. TAR no longer shares the monopoly it once had as the only prestige journal of academic accounting research. But we also suspect that the actual reasons are more complicated for the decline in probabilities that any author will have more than five TAR appearances across a two-decade span in time --- not the least of which is the explosion in the proportion of capital markets accountics studies submitted to TAR by more and more accounting faculty. This makes appearances in TAR much more competitive for such studies.

Although the number of accounting doctoral programs in the United States approaches 100 in recent years, there is a persistent set of doctoral granting universities whose faculties have published most frequently in TAR every decade even though individual authors have a much higher rate of turnover in those universities. See Table 3 for a listing of universities employing most frequent TAR authors for the 1926-2005 entire history of TAR and the most recent decades.

Insert Table 3 About Here

In Table 3, 16 universities are consistently in the Top 30 and 12 universities are consistently in the Top 20. In recent decades of intensive accountics, Pennsylvania roared out of nowhere from 1966-1985 into Rank 3 in 1986-2005. Southern California, Notre Dame, Columbia, Arizona, Duke, and North Carolina made noteworthy jumps into the Top 20 employers of TAR authors. Purdue, Georgia, and Kansas made brief appearances in the 1966-1985 decades but then faded from the top.

Two universities are worthy of special comment in Table 3. Harvard has an excellent reputation in managerial accounting but has never been a noted leader in accountics. It did not make the Table 3 Top 30 over the last 40 years of TAR publishing. At the opposite extreme, the University of Rochester is a noted leader in accountics but is not in the Top 30 in the last 40 years of TAR. We suspect the reason is that Rochester’s accounting professors are fewer in number and tend to publish accountics research in their own Journal of Accounting and Economics and in Chicago’s Journal of Accounting Research rather than TAR.

We analyze the outcomes of doctoral students who graduated from those same programs later in this paper in Table 5. Alma maters of frequent TAR authors are even more consistently in the Top 20 than are the Table 3 rankings of employers.

 

TAR BETWEEN 1926 AND 1955: IGNORING ACCOUNTICS

Accountics is the mathematical science of values.
Charles Sprague [1887] as quoted by McMillan [1998, p. 1][NH1] 

Accounting professor Charles Sprague of Columbia University (then called Columbia College) coined the word "accountics" in 1887. The word is not used today in accounting and has some alternative meanings outside our discipline. However, in the early 20th century, accountics was the centerpiece of some unpublished lectures by Sprague. McMillan [1998, p. 11] stated the following:

These claims were not a pragmatic strategy to legitimize the development of sophisticated bookkeeping theories. Rather, this development of a science was seen as revealing long-hidden realities within the economic environment and the double-entry bookkeeping system itself. The science of accounts, through systematic mathematical analysis, could discover hidden thrust of the reality of economic value. The term “accountics” captured the imagination of the members of the IA, connoting advances in bookkeeping that all these men were experiencing.

By 1900, there was a journal called Accountics [Forrester, 2003]. Both the journal and the term “accountics” had short lives, but the belief that mathematical analysis and empirical research can “discover hidden thrust of the reality of economic value” (see above)  underlies much of what has been published in TAR over the past three decades. Hence, we propose reviving the term “accountics” to describe the research methods and quantitative analysis tools that have become popular in TAR and other leading accounting research journals. We essentially define accountics as equivalent to the scientific study of values in what Zimmerman [2001, p. 414] called “agency problems, corporate governance, capital asset pricing, capital budgeting, decision analysis, risk management, queuing theory, and statistical audit analysis.”

The American Association of University Instructors of Accounting, which in December 1935 became the American Accounting Association, commenced unofficially in 1915 [Zeff, 1966, p. 5]. It was proposed in October of 1919 that the Association publish a Quarterly Journal of Accountics. This proposed accountics journal never got off the ground as leaders in the Association argued heatedly and fruitlessly about whether accountancy was a science. A quarterly journal called The Accounting Review was subsequently born in 1925, with its first issue being published in March of 1926. Its accountics-like attributes did not commence in earnest until the 1960s.

Practitioner involvement, in a large measure, was the reason for changing the name of the Association by removing the words “of University Instructors.” Practitioners interested in accounting education participated actively in AAA meetings. TAR articles in the first several decades were devoted heavily to education issues and accounting issues in particular industries and trade groups. Research methodologies were mainly normative (without mathematics), case study, and archival (history) methods. Anecdotal evidence and hypothetical illustrations ruled the day. The longest serving editor of TAR was a practitioner named Eric Kohler, who determined what was published in TAR between 1929 and 1943. In those years, when the AAA leadership mandated that TAR focus on the development of accounting principles, publications were oriented to both practitioners and educators, Chatfield [1975, p. 4].

 

Following World War II, practitioners outnumbered educators in the AAA [Chatfield 1975, p. 4]. Leading partners from accounting firms took pride in publishing papers and books intended to inspire scholarship among professors and students. Over the years, some practitioners, particularly those with scholarly publications, were admitted into the Accounting Hall of Fame founded by The Ohio State University. Prior to the 1960s, accounting educators were generally long on practical experience and short on academic credentials such as doctoral degrees.

A major catalyst for change in accounting research occurred when the Ford Foundation poured millions of dollars into the study of collegiate business schools and the funding of doctoral programs and students in business studies. Gordon and Howell [1959] reported that business faculty in colleges lacked research skills and academic esteem when compared to their colleagues in the sciences. The Ford Foundation thereafter provided funding for doctoral programs and for top quality graduate students to pursue doctoral degrees in business and accountancy. The Foundation even funded publication of selected doctoral dissertations to give doctoral studies in business more visibility. Great pressures were also brought to bear on academic associations like the AAA to increase the scientific standards for publications in journals like TAR.

 

TAR BETWEEN 1956 AND 1985: NURTURING OF ACCOUNTICS

A perfect storm for change in accounting research arose in the late 1950s and early1960s. First came the critical Pierson Carnegie Report [1959] and the Gordon and Howell Ford Foundation Report [1959]. Shortly thereafter, the AACSB introduced a requirement requiring that a certain percentage of faculty possess doctoral degrees for business education programs seeking accreditation [Bricker and Previts, 1990]. Soon afterwards, both a doctorate and publication in top accounting research journals became necessary for tenure [Langenderfer, 1987].

A second component of this perfect storm for change was the proliferation of mainframe computers, the development of analytical software (e.g., early SPSS for mainframes), and the dawning of management and decision “sciences.” The third huge stimulus for changed research is rooted in portfolio theory discovered by Harry Markowitz in1952 that became the core of his dissertation at Princeton University, which  was published in book form in 1959. This theory eventually gave birth to the Nobel Prize winning Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) and a new era of capital market research. A fourth stimulus was when the CRSP stock price tapes became available from the University of Chicago. The availability of CRSP led to a high number of TAR articles on capital market event studies (e.g., earnings announcements on trading prices and volumes) covering a period of nearly 40 years.

This “perfect storm” roared into nearly all accounting and finance research and turned academic accounting research into an accountics-centered science of values and mathematical/statistical analysis. After 1960, there was a shift in TAR, albeit slow at first, toward preferences for quantitative model building --- econometric models in capital market studies, time series models in forecasting, advanced calculus information science, information economics, analytical models, and psychometric behavioral models. Chatfield [1975, p. 6] wrote the following:

Beginning in the 1960s the Review published many more articles by non-accountants, whose contribution involved showing how ideas or methods from their own discipline could be used to solve particular accounting problems. The more successful adaptations included matrix theory, mathematical model building, organization theory, linear programming, and Bayesian analysis.

TAR was not alone in moving toward a more quantitative focus. Accountics methodologies accompanied similar quantitative model building preferences in finance, marketing, management science, decision science, operations research, information economics, computer science, and information systems. Early changes along these lines began to appear in other leading research journals between 1956-1965, with some mathematical modeling papers noted by Dyckman and Zeff [1984, p. 229]. Fleming, Graci and Thompson [2000, p. 43] documented additional emphasis on quantitative methodology between 1966 and 1985. In particular, they note how tenure requirements began to change and asserted the following:

The Accounting Review evolved into a journal with demanding acceptance standards whose leading authors were highly educated accounting academics who, to a large degree, brought methods and tools from other disciplines to bear upon accounting issues.

A number of new academic accountancy journals were launched in the early 1960s, including the Journal of Accounting Research (1963), Abacus (1965) and The International Journal of Accounting Education and Research (1965). Clinging to its traditional normative roots and trade-article style would have made TAR appear to be a journal for academic luddites. Actually, many of the new mathematical approaches to theory development were fundamentally normative, but they were couched in the formidable language and rigors of mathematics. Publication of papers in traditional normative theory, history, and systems slowly ground to almost zero in the new age of accountics.

These new spearheads in accountics were not without problems. It is both humorous and sad to go back and discover how naïve and misleading some of TAR’s bold and high risk thrusts were in quantitative methods. Statistical models were employed without regard to underlying assumptions of independence, temporal stationarity, multicollinearity, homoscedasticity, missing variables, and departures from the normal distribution. Mathematical applications were proposed for real-world systems that failed to meet continuity and non-convexity assumptions inherent in models such as linear programming and calculus optimizations. Some proposed applications of finite mathematics and discrete (integer) programming failed because the fastest computers in the world, then and now, could not solve most realistic integer programming problems in less than 100 years.

After financial databases provided a beta covariance of each security in a portfolio with the market portfolio, many capital market events studies were published by TAR and other leading accounting journals. In the early years, accounting researchers did not challenge the CAPM’s assumptions and limitations --- limitations that, in retrospect, cast doubt upon many of the findings based upon any single index of market risk [Fama and French, 1992].

Leading accounting professors lamented TAR’s preference for rigor over relevancy [Zeff, 1978; Lee, 1997; and Williams, 1985 and 2003]. Sundem [1987] provides revealing information about the changed perceptions of authors, almost entirely from academe, who submitted manuscripts for review between June 1982 and May 1986. Among the 1,148 submissions, only 39 used archival (history) methods; 34 of those submissions were rejected. Another 34 submissions used survey methods; 33 of those were rejected. And 100 submissions used traditional normative (deductive) methods with 85 of those being rejected. Except for a small set of 28 manuscripts classified as using “other” methods (mainly descriptive empirical according to Sundem), the remaining larger subset of submitted manuscripts used methods that Sundem [1987, p. 199] classified these as follows:

292          General Empirical

172          Behavioral

135          Analytical modeling

119          Capital Market

  97          Economic modeling

  40          Statistical modeling

  29          Simulation

It is clear that by 1982, accounting researchers realized that having mathematical or statistical analysis in TAR submissions made accountics virtually a necessary, albeit not sufficient, condition for acceptance for publication. It became increasingly difficult for a single editor to have expertise in all of the above methods. In the late 1960s, editorial decisions on publication shifted from the TAR editor alone to the TAR editor in conjunction with specialized referees and eventually associate editors [Flesher, 1991, p. 167]. Fleming et al. [2000, p. 45] wrote the following:

The big change was in research methods. Modeling and empirical methods became prominent during 1966-1985, with analytical modeling and general empirical methods leading the way. Although used to a surprising extent, deductive-type methods declined in popularity, especially in the second half of the 1966-1985 period.

We were surprised that there was no reduction in accountics dominance in TAR since 1986 in spite of changes in the environment such as the explosion of communications networking, interacting relational databases, and sophisticated accounting information systems (AIS).Virtually no AIS papers were published in TAR between 1986 and 2005. This practice was changed in 2006 by the appointment of a new AIS associate editor to encourage publication of some AIS papers that often do not fit neatly into the accountics mold. In an interesting aside, we note that the AAA has become a leading international association of accounting educators. Sundem [1987] reported that about 12 percent of the manuscripts submitted came from outside of North America. The American Accounting Association is an international association that provides publication opportunities to all members, and manuscripts are submitted from many parts of the world. In our opinion, this contributed significantly to the rise in accountics studies worldwide.

A major change at TAR took place in the 1980s with the creation of new AAA journals to relieve TAR of publishing articles that were less accountics-oriented. Prior to 1983, TAR was the leading academic journal for teachers of accounting as well as practitioners. Numerous TAR papers appeared on how to improve accounting education and teaching. In an effort to better serve educators, the AAA created a specialty journal called Issues in Accounting Education, first published in 1983. A journal aimed more at issues facing practitioners was inaugurated in 1987 under the name Accounting Horizons. Around this time, the AAA also granted permission for specialty “sections” to be formed for sub-disciplines of accounting, which resulted in additional new journals. These new journals allowed TAR to focus more heavily on quantitative papers that became increasingly difficult for practitioners and many teachers of accounting to comprehend.

Fleming et al. [2000, p. 48] report that education articles in TAR declined from 21 percent in 1946-1965 to 8 percent in 1966-1985. Issues in Accounting Education began to publish the education articles in 1983. Garcha, Harwood, and Hermanson [1983] reported on the readership of TAR before any new specialty journals commenced in the AAA. They found that among their AAA membership respondents, only 41.7 percent would subscribe to TAR if it became unbundled in terms of dollar savings from AAA membership dues. This suggests that TAR was not meeting the AAA membership’s needs. Based heavily upon the written comments of respondents, the authors’ conclusions were, in part, as follows by Garcha, Harwood, and Hermanson [1983, p. 37]:

The findings of the survey reveal that opinions vary regarding TAR and that emotions run high. At one extreme some respondents seem to believe that TAR is performing its intended function very well. Those sharing this view may believe that its mission is to provide a high-quality outlet for those at the cutting-edge of accounting research. The pay-off for this approach may be recognition by peers, achieving tenure and promotion, and gaining mobility should one care to move. This group may also believe that trying to affect current practice is futile anyway, so why even try?

At the other extreme are those who believe that TAR is not serving its intended purpose. This group may believe TAR should serve the readership interests of the audiences identified by the Moonitz Committee. Many in the intended audience cannot write for, cannot read, or are not interested in reading the Main Articles which have been published during approximately the last decade. As a result there is the suggestion that this group believes that a change in editorial policy is needed.

After a study by Abdel-khalik [1976] revealed complaints about the difficulties of following the increased quantitative terminology in TAR, editors did introduce abstracts at the beginning of the articles to summarize major findings with less jargon [Flesher, 1991, p. 169]. However, the problem was simultaneously exacerbated when TAR stopped publishing commentaries and rebuttals that sometimes aided comprehension of complicated research. Science journals often are much better about encouraging commentaries, replications, and rebuttals.

TAR BETWEEN 1986 AND 2005: MATURATION OF ACCOUNTICS

We pointed out earlier in Table 2 how the numbers of authors having five or more appearances in twenty-year time spans has markedly declined over the entire 80-year life of TAR. Table 4 lists the most recent top authors for the 1986-2005 period. In contrast to Heck and Bremser [1986] findings, the likelihood that any single author will have more than five appearances is greatly reduced in more recent times.

Insert Table 4 About Here

Practitioner membership in the AAA faded along with their interest in journals published by the AAA [Bricker and Previts, 1990]. The exodus of practitioners became even more pronounced in the 1990s when leadership in the large accounting firms was changing toward professional managers overseeing global operations. Rayburn [2006, p. 4] notes that practitioner membership is now less than 10 percent of AAA members, and many practitioner members join more for public relations and student recruitment reasons rather than interest in AAA research. Practitioner authorship in TAR plunged to nearly zero over recent decades, as reflected in Figure 2.

Insert Figure 2

When it commenced in 1987, Accounting Horizons (AH) was to provide a new outlet for practitioner authors and readers because TAR was becoming increasingly esoteric for an practitioner audience. In that first year, 22 percent of the articles published in AH had practitioners as at least one of the authors. It never again was this high, but in the 1987-1995 time span, 8.1 percent of the authors were practitioners. Across the 1996-2005 decade, this reduced to 1.55 percent, with no practitioner authors across the years 1999-2004. Although the purpose of AH was set out to be to appeal to practitioners in terms of readership and authorship, it appears that AH has failed in the latter case. Rayburn [2006, p. 4] announced that initiatives would be forthcoming to attract more practitioner authors, especially joint authorships between practitioners and academics in TAR and AH.

Research published in TAR over the past two decades has become increasingly rigorous as more accounting researchers commenced to conduct more sophisticated statistical analyses on larger databases. Compustat began to provide much more useful data such as operating earnings after 1985. Databases like Edgar and Audit Analytics did not exist prior to 1985. None of the accounting research databases were networked and online until the 1990s. At the same time, statistical inference software became easier to use when SAS came online in 1993.

TAR and other leading accounting research journals were influenced heavily by positivist methods expounded by Watts and Zimmerman [1978]. Positive theory in this context assumes that manager and investor wealth is positively tied to accounting earnings that in turn are impacted by accounting standards and tax regulators. More importantly, positive research methods are limited to scientific empirical and analytical studies verifiable under the Popper [1934] criterion of verifiability in reality apart from subjective opinion. Normative reasoning and opinion-based case study research popular in law schools and in TAR before 1980 were seemingly no longer considered legitimate for TAR. Watts and Zimmerman [1990] raised a vigorous defense against positivism’s harshest critics such as Christenson [1983], Whitley [1988], Tinker, Merino, and Neimark [1982] and Williams [2003]. Nonaka [2006] provides arguments that positivism’s dominance in sociology, management, and organizational behavior research badly hindered those disciplines as well.

Compared to the Journal of Finance, TAR has had a much lower citation rate across disciplines. AAA President Judy ,  [2005, p. 3] noted that the 1990-2002 Social Science Citation Index (SSCI) credits the Journal of Finance with 26,741 citations and the Journal of Marketing with 18,595 citations. Over the same time period, TAR had only 4,064 citations. As stated earlier, Rayburn concluded that the low citation rate was due to a lack of diversity in terms of topics and research methods in articles published in TAR. She recommended that the AAA must “increase both the number and a greater diversity of topics using a wider range of research methods,” particularly in TAR.

To her recommendations, we might add that TAR policies about not publishing replications should be changed in our viewpoint. Failure to publish replications in TAR and other accounting research journals is prima facie evidence that the findings themselves are not as important as the methods and tools used to derive those findings. It is difficult, if not impossible, to find a published replication of any study published in the leading journals of the AAA. Jensen [2006b] reports a December 5, 2002 message from David Stout recalling when he was Editor of Issues in Accounting Education for the AAA:

When I assumed the editorship of Issues, I had to appear before the AAA Publications Committee to present/defend a plan for the journal during my (then) forthcoming tenure. One of my plans was to institute a "Replications Section" in the journal. (The sad reality, beyond the excellent points you make, is that the lack of replications has a limiting effect on our ability to establish a knowledge base. In short, there are not many things where, on the basis of empirical research, we can draw firm conclusions.) After listening to my presentation, the chair of the Publications Committee posed the following question: "Why would we want to devote precious journal space to that which we already know?" To say the least, I was shocked--a rather stark reality check you might say. The lack of replications precludes us, in a very real sense, from "knowing." 

 

AUTHORS AND ALMA MATERS

In Table 2 we found an increased turnover among TAR authors in recent years, although each year the majority of authors tend to have graduated from the Top 20 universities. Table 5 lists the top alma maters of frequent TAR authors for the time intervals 1926-2005, 1966-1985, and 1986-2005. The persistence of the Top 20 schools is even more noteworthy in Table 5 (alma maters) than in Table 3 (employers).

Insert Table 5 About Here

There are 17 alma maters consistently ranked in the Top 20 in Table 5. Columbia and Pennsylvania dropped out of the Top 30 in the 1966-1985 period but bounced back to Ranks 25 and 23 in the next two decades. Iowa lifted itself to Rank 7 in the 1986-2005 recent period. Ohio State and Rochester did not make strong Table 3 showings as employers of TAR authors but they are at Ranks 8 and 19 as alma maters of frequent TAR authors in Table 5 across the 1986-2005 recent period. Although not noted for accountics, Harvard’s doctoral graduates lifted Harvard up to Rank 27 in the last two decades.

The probability that any author in TAR will have one of the Top 20 as an alma mater is over 50%. In terms of proportions of appearances of the Top 20 alma maters in TAR, the percentages were 51.33 percent for 1926-2005, 59.27 percent for 1966-1985, and 61.39 percent for 1986-2005. There is some suggestion that not having graduated from one of the Top 20 or Top 30 schools greatly reduces the probability of publishing in TAR.

Across the entire 1926-2005 TAR history, 37 percent of the doctoral graduates were in the Top 20 alma mater publishers in TAR using Hasselback [2006] data. But as new doctoral programs came on line, the very large doctoral programs such as those at Illinois, Michigan, Texas, Indiana, and Michigan State greatly reduced doctoral program size in the 1986-2005 period. The Top 20 schools in the 1986-2005 period (Table 5) only generated 13 percent of the new doctoral graduates. Since most of the authors make appearances in TAR within a few years of graduation, we can roughly estimate that 13% of the TAR authors between in the recent two decades had 61 percent of the TAR appearances. We stress that these comparisons are soft since some of the 1986-2005 TAR authors earned their doctorates before 1986.

Rodgers and Williams [1996, p. 58] reported the following about TAR authors from 1967-1993:

The relative success of recent graduates of the elite schools is quite apparent when we compare them to the remainder of the U.S. Ph.D. programs. Ninety-one U.S. programs were in existence by 1993. The weighted average probability of appearing at least once in TAR for the first twenty schools is .306; more than once it is .125. For the first thirty, these same probabilities are .276 and .111, respectively. But for the remaining sixty-one programs these probabilities are .058 and .017. Productivity, measured as appearances in TAR, is concentrated among the first thirty schools; on average, it seems not graduating from one of these schools substantially reduces the chances for a scholar to participate in the knowledge production process through publishing in TAR.

Rodgers and Williams [1996, pp. 67-68] list 56 newer U.S. doctoral programs and their graduates’ publishing rates in TAR since 1965. These schools had very low frequencies of publications in TAR, while the Top 20 older programs continued to dominate in TAR in Table 5.

ARTICLE FREQUENCIES

Over time, both TAR in accounting and the Journal of Finance in finance became increasingly esoteric. A journal called Financial Management was introduced in finance in 1972 to provide an outlet for publishing research aimed more at research of interest to practitioners. Accounting Horizons was introduced in 1987 for the same reasons in accounting, and both of these offshoot journals hoped to inspire professors and practitioners to engage in joint research. We thought it would be interesting to compare the article frequencies of these journals.

Figure 3 shows the number of 2000-2004 doctoral graduates in accounting versus those in finance over the same time span from AACSB accredited universities.

Insert Figure 3 About Here

New doctoral graduates are especially interested in publishing in the leading journals of their academic disciplines. Most submit one or several articles from their dissertations. Figure 4 compares the numbers of articles published from the two  academic finance journals mentioned above with two AAA accounting journals mentioned above.

Insert Figure 4 Here

Comparison of these two graphs is somewhat difficult because there are other academic journals in both disciplines. However, the outcome in Figure 4 alone suggests roughly three times as much opportunity for publishing in these two leading finance journals even though the number of doctoral graduates in finance is only slightly larger than the number of doctoral graduates in accounting. During the 1986-2005 period, the Journal of Finance alone published well over twice as many articles as TAR. This fact, plus the outcomes in Figures 3 and 4, support former AAA President Rayburn’s contention that other academic disciplines such as finance provide many more outlets for faculty research publications relative to those available to accounting faculty. It also supports her recommendation for publishing more articles in TAR. Her appeal was answered in part when TAR increased the number of issues from four per year to six per year starting in 2006.

 In Figure 5, Accounting Horizons shows a decline in the numbers of articles published relative to the pattern for TAR. Accounting researchers show an increased propensity for publishing in TAR relative to the more practice and profession oriented Accounting Horizons.

Insert Figure 5 Here

Pressures for increased volume and diversity arise from accounting faculty, who argue that due to the long history of TAR as a premiere academic journal, publications in TAR count more than publications in other AAA journals in tenure and performance evaluation processes.

The lowest volume years in TAR are somewhat misleading in Figure 5. During those few years, before the AAA raised membership dues and subscription rates, the Executive Committee placed hard restrictions on the number of pages allowed in AAA publications. This greatly reduced the number of articles in TAR until new funding relaxed the page restrictions. Outcomes in Figure 5 tend to bear out our contention that, over the past two decades, accounting researchers have been more interested in accountics than accounting practice.

 

PROPOSED CHANGES IN TAR AFTER ITS 80th BIRTHDAY

Incoming AAA President Judy Rayburn addressed serious problems facing both the AAA and some of its publications, notably TAR and Accounting Horizons, in her August 10, 2005 Presidential Address at the annual meeting in San Francisco [Rayburn, 2005 and 2006]. Her recommendations include increasing the number of publications in TAR by increasing the frequency of issues and increasing the breadth and diversity and of the published research. Rayburn’s proposals for Accounting Horizons (AH) were that the AAA should work to actively seek more articles that “deal with practice-related issues” and increase authorship by practitioners who work jointly with academics. Rayburn asserted, “Our top-tier journals as a group project too narrow a view of the breadth and diversity of (what should count as) accounting research.”

In addition to publishing more papers in six rather than four issues per year, TAR will become somewhat more diverse in one sense. McCarthy [2005, p. 1] wrote the following with respect to Accounting Information Systems in TAR:

This has been generally true (that TAR will not publish AIS research) in the past and there are certainly still a host of accounting journals that underestimate the importance of accounting information systems (AIS) research. Additionally, it is still true that almost all accounting academics remain clueless about the different kinds of methodologies that AIS, MIS, and computer science researchers generally use. Thus, accounting systems people (like Dave and I plus many AECM members) are forced to live in an academic world that understands neither “the what” nor “the how” of AIS research and teaching. However, the American Accounting Association (in general) and The Accounting Review (in particular) are taking steps to narrow this gap in understanding. Dan Dhaliwal, the senior editor of The Accounting Review (TAR) has appointed me – a known maverick in accounting circles and a long-time champion of AIS research and teaching -- as an editor for TAR.

 

IMPLICATIONS OF ACCOUNTICS FOR ACCOUNTING PROGRAMS

We surmise that some professionals in accounting who have no aptitude or interest in becoming scientists refrain from enrolling in current accounting doctoral programs due to the narrowness of most accounting doctoral programs and the lack of other epistemological and ontological methods more to their liking. New evidence suggests that this problem also extends to topical concentrations of those who do enter doctoral programs. In a study of the critical shortage of doctoral students in accountancy, Plumlee et al. [2006] discovered that there were only 29 doctoral students in auditing and 23 in tax out of the 2004 total of 391 accounting doctoral students enrolled in years 1-5 in the United States. We might add that the authors of the article were all appointed in 2004 by American Accounting Association President Bill Felix to an ad hoc Committee to Assess the Supply and Demand for Accounting Ph.D.s. Plumlee et al. [2006, p. 125] wrote as follows (emphasis added as we think it relates to accountics):

The Committee believes the dire shortages in tax and audit areas warrant particular focus. One possible solution to these specific shortages is for PhD. Programs to create new tracks targeted toward developing high-quality faculty specifically in these areas. These tracks should be considered part of a well-rounded Ph.D. program in which students develop specialized knowledge in one area of accounting, but gain substantive exposure to other accounting research areas . . .

A possible explanation for the shortages in these areas is that PhD. Students perceive that publishing audit and tax research in top accounting journals is more difficult, which might have the unintended consequence of reducing the supply of PhD.-qualified faculty to teach in those specialties. Given that promotion and tenure requirements at major universities require publication in top-tier journals, students are likely drawn to financial accounting in hopes of getting the necessary publications for career success. While the Committee has no evidence that bears directly on this point, it believes that the possibility deserves further consideration.

A number of AAA presidents have asserted that empirical research is not always well suited for “discovery research.” These AAA presidents urged in their messages to the membership and elsewhere that accounting research become more diverse in terms of topics and methods. Examples include Bailey [1994], Langenderfer [1987], Rayburn [2006], and Dyckman and Zeff [1984]. The following is a quote from the President’s Message of Sundem [1993, p. 3]:

Although empirical scientific method has made many positive contributions to accounting research, it is not the method that is likely to generate new theories, though it will be useful in testing them. For example, Einstein’s theories were not developed empirically, but they relied on understanding the empirical evidence and they were tested empirically. Both the development and testing of theories should be recognized as acceptable accounting research.

 

Although the AAA expanded its number and diversity of journals, none of these journals carry as much weight as publication in TAR in university tenure and performance evaluation decisions. As a result, virtually all doctoral program curricula focus on the development of skill sets needed for publishing in accountics journals like TAR. Scientific research skills replaced accounting content in doctoral programs. Today, doctoral candidates in accountancy must have skills in mathematics, statistics, and scientific model-building areas such as econometrics, psychometrics, and sociometrics. This emphasis has discouraged many young practicing accountants from returning to campus to obtain doctoral degrees. Those with no interest in or aptitude for scientific research have virtually no place to get a quality accounting doctoral degree. Thus, an unwanted consequence of the publishing criteria at top-tier accounting journals has been the narrowing of doctoral program curricula and the decrease in the number of potential doctoral candidates in accounting. [Plumlee et al., 2006]

For accounting, Hasselback [2006] reports that the number of accounting doctoral degrees plunged from 212 in 1989 to 96 in 2004. Even if he missed a few in his count, the trend is clearly critical. Fewer and fewer accounting undergraduate and master’s degree graduates are returning to earn doctoral degrees. The reasons for this are complex, but there is considerable anecdotal evidence that some potential doctoral candidates are not interested in the narrow scientific methodology curriculum offered at most doctoral programs.

Zimmerman was a major mover in the top-tier journal shift toward positivist methods and accountics research, Zimmerman [2001] and Watts and Zimmerman [1978, 1990]. Later he consistently took the position that the increased emphasis on teaching in business schools relative to research threatens the survival of business education in top universities, DeAngelo, DeAngelo, and Zimmerman [2005]. On this point, we differ with him and his co-authors. Student evaluations and demands for teaching have indeed put greater stress upon teaching, but tenure and performance evaluation of faculty have put greater pressure on faculty to publish in top-tier journals that have narrow accountics criteria. Many potential doctoral candidates are interested in teaching accounting and even in conducting research, but they do not want to conduct the mathematical and scientific research required for publication, tenure, and high performance evaluations [Plumlee et al., 2006].

 

CONCLUSION

In the first 40 years of TAR, an accounting “scholar” was first and foremost an expert on accounting. After 1960, following the Gordon and Howell Report, the perception of what it took to be a “scholar” changed to quantitative modeling. It became advantageous for an “accounting” researcher to have a degree in mathematics, management science, mathematical economics, psychometrics, or econometrics. Being a mere accountant no longer was sufficient credentials to be deemed a scholarly researcher. Many doctoral programs stripped much of the accounting content out of the curriculum and sent students to mathematics and social science departments for courses. Scholarship on accounting standards became too much of a time diversion for faculty who were “leading scholars.” Particularly relevant in this regard is Dennis Beresford’s address to the AAA membership at the 2005 Annual AAA Meetings in San Francisco:

In my eight years in teaching I’ve concluded that way too many of us don’t stay relatively up to date on professional issues. Most of us have some experience as an auditor, corporate accountant, or in some similar type of work. That’s great, but things change quickly these days.
Beresford [2005]

 

Jane Mutchler made a similar appeal for accounting professors to become more involved in the accounting profession when she was President of the AAA [Mutchler, 2004, p. 3].

In the last 40 years, TAR’s publication preferences shifted toward problems amenable to scientific research, with esoteric models requiring accountics skills in place of accounting expertise. When Professor Beresford attempted to publish his remarks, an Accounting Horizons referee’s report to him contained the following revealing reply about “leading scholars” in accounting research:

1. The paper provides specific recommendations for things that accounting academics should be doing to make the accounting profession better. However (unless the author believes that academics' time is a free good) this would presumably take academics' time away from what they are currently doing. While following the author's advice might make the accounting profession better, what is being made worse? In other words, suppose I stop reading current academic research and start reading news about current developments in accounting standards. Who is made better off and who is made worse off by this reallocation of my time? Presumably my students are marginally better off, because I can tell them some new stuff in class about current accounting standards, and this might possibly have some limited benefit on their careers. But haven't I made my colleagues in my department worse off if they depend on me for research advice, and haven't I made my university worse off if its academic reputation suffers because I'm no longer considered a leading scholar? Why does making the accounting profession better take precedence over everything else an academic does with their time?
As quoted in Jensen [2006a]

The above quotation illustrates the consequences of editorial policies of TAR and several other leading accounting research journals. To be considered a “leading scholar” in accountancy, one’s research must employ mathematically-based economic/behavioral theory and quantitative modeling. Most TAR articles published in the past two decades support this contention. But according to AAA President Judy Rayburn and other recent AAA presidents, this scientific focus may not be in the best interests of accountancy academicians or the accountancy profession.

In terms of citations, TAR fails on two accounts. Citation rates are low in practitioner journals because the scientific paradigm is too narrow, thereby discouraging researchers from focusing on problems of great interest to practitioners that seemingly just do not fit the scientific paradigm due to lack of quality data, too many missing variables, and suspected non-stationarities. TAR editors are loath to open TAR up to non-scientific methods so that really interesting accounting problems are neglected in TAR. Those non-scientific methods include case method studies, traditional historical method investigations, and normative deductions.

In the other account, TAR citation rates are low in academic journals outside accounting because the methods and techniques being used (like CAPM and options pricing models) were discovered elsewhere and accounting researchers are not sought out for discoveries of scientific methods and models. The intersection of models and topics that do appear in TAR seemingly are borrowed models and uninteresting topics outside the academic discipline of accounting.

We close with a quotation from Scott McLemee demonstrating that what happened among accountancy academics over the past four decades is not unlike what happened in other academic disciplines that developed “internal dynamics of esoteric disciplines,” communicating among themselves in loops detached from their underlying professions. McLemee’s [2006] article stems from Bender [1993].

 “Knowledge and competence increasingly developed out of the internal dynamics of esoteric disciplines rather than within the context of shared perceptions of public needs,” writes Bender. “This is not to say that professionalized disciplines or the modern service professions that imitated them became socially irresponsible. But their contributions to society began to flow from their own self-definitions rather than from a reciprocal engagement with general public discourse.”

 

Now, there is a definite note of sadness in Bender’s narrative – as there always tends to be in accounts of the shift from Gemeinschaft to Gesellschaft. Yet it is also clear that the transformation from civic to disciplinary professionalism was necessary.

 

“The new disciplines offered relatively precise subject matter and procedures,” Bender concedes, “at a time when both were greatly confused. The new professionalism also promised guarantees of competence — certification — in an era when criteria of intellectual authority were vague and professional performance was unreliable.”

But in the epilogue to Intellect and Public Life, Bender suggests that the process eventually went too far. “The risk now is precisely the opposite,” he writes. “Academe is threatened by the twin dangers of fossilization and scholasticism (of three types: tedium, high tech, and radical chic). The agenda for the next decade, at least as I see it, ought to be the opening up of the disciplines, the ventilating of professional communities that have come to share too much and that have become too self-referential.”

For the good of the AAA membership and the profession of accountancy in general, one hopes that the changes in publication and editorial policies at TAR proposed by President Rayburn [2005, p. 4] will result in the “opening up” of topics and research methods produced by “leading scholars.”

 

REFERENCES

Abdel-khalik, A.(1976), “An Analysis of the Attitudes of a Sample of AAA Members toward The Accounting Review,” The Accounting Review 51 (3): 604-616.

Bailey, A. (1994), “Journals,” Accounting Education News 22 (2): 1-5.

Bender, T. (1993), “Intellect and Public Life: Essays on the Social History of Academic Intellectuals in the United States,.” Baltimore. MD.: Johns Hopkins University Press.

Beresford, D. (2005), “Luncheon Address at the American Accounting Association Annual Meetings,”
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen//theory/00overview/theory01.htm#AcademicsVersusProfession

Bricker, R. and Previts, G. (1990), “The Sociology of Accountants: A Study of the Practice Community Schisms,” Accounting Horizons 4 (1): 1-14.

Chatfield, M. (1975), “The Accounting Review’s First Fifty Years,” The Accounting Review 50 (1). 1-6.

Christenson, C. (1983), “The Methodology of Positive Accounting,” The Accounting Review 58 (1). 1-22.

DeAngelo, H., l. DeAngelo, L and Zimmerman, J. L. (2005), “What's Really Wrong With U.S. Business Schools?” (July) --- http://ssrn.com/abstract=766404

Dyckman, T.R. and Zeff, S. A. 1984. “Two Decades of the Journal of Accounting Research,” Journal of Accounting Research 22 (1): 225-297.

Fama, F.E. and French, K. R. (1992), “The Cross-Section of Expected Stock Returns,” Journal of Finance 47 (2): 427-465.

Fleming, R.J., Graci, S. P., and Thompson, J. E. (2000), “Dawning of the age of quantitative/empirical methods in accounting research: Evidence from the leading authors of The Accounting Review, 1966-1985,” The Accounting Historians Journal 27 (1): 43-72.

Flesher, D. (1991), The Third-Quarter Century of the American Accounting Association 1966-1991, Sarasota. FL: American Accounting Association. This is a monograph that can be ordered at http://aaahq.org/market/display.cfm?catID=8

Forrester, D.A. (2003), “The St. LOUIS EXPOSITION of 1904 and the ACCOUNTANTS' CONGRESS,” Glasgow G20 OAW. http://accfinweb.account.strath.ac.uk/df/st_louis_2003.html

Garcha, B.S., Harwood, G. B., and Hermanson, R. H. (1983), “A Study of the Readership of The Accounting Review,” Journal of Accounting Education 21 (1): 21-39.

Gordon, R.A. & Howell. J.E. (1959) Higher Education forBusiness. New York: Columbia University Press.

Hasselback, J.R. (2006), Accounting Faculty Directory 2006-2007. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

Heck, J. L. and Bremser, W. G. (1986), “Six decades of The Accounting Review: A summary of author and institutional contributors,” The Accounting Review 61 (4): 735-744

Heck, J.L., Jensen, R. E., and Cooley, P. L. (1990), “An Analysis of Contributors to Accounting Journals Part II: The Aggregate Performances,” International Journal of Accounting 25 (2): 202-217.

Heck, J.L., Jensen, R. E., and Cooley, P. L. (1991), “An Analysis of Contributors to Accounting Journals Part II: The Individual Academic Accounting Journals,” International Journal of Accounting 26 (1): 1-17.

Ittner, C. D. and Larcker, D. F. (2001) “Assessing empirical research in managerial accounting: A value-based management perspective,” Journal of Accounting and Economics 32 (2): 349-410.

Jensen, R.E. 2006a. “Brief Summary of Accounting Theory: Academics Versus the Profession,”
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen//theory/00overview/theory01.htm#AcademicsVersusProfession

Jensen, R.E. 2006b. “Brief Summary of Accounting Theory: Replication,”
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen//theory/00overview/theory01.htm#Relication

Langenderfer, H. (1987) “Accounting Education’s History - A 100 Year Search for Identity,” Journal of Accountancy 163 (5): 302-331.

Lee, T. (1997) “The Editorial Gatekeepers of the Accounting Academy,” Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal 10 (1): 11-30.

Martin, J.R. (2001) “MAAW Controversial Issues Link, “ http://www.maaw.info/ArticleSummaries/ArtSumZimmerman01.htm

McCarthy, W.E. (2005) “Message on the AECM Listserv,”
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen//theory/00overview/theory01.htm#AcademicsVersusProfession

McLemee, S. (2006) “Notes from the Underground. Inside Higher Ed. January 18,”
http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2006/01/18/mclemee

McMillan, K.P. (1998) “The science of accounts: Bookkeeping rooted in the ideal of science,” Accounting Historians Journal 25 (2): 1-21.

Mutchler, J. (2004) “President's Message,” Accounting Education News 32 (1):1-4.

Nonaka, I. (2006) “Managing Organizational Knowledge: Theoretical and Methodological Foundations,” in Great Minds in Management: The Process of Theory Development, Edited by Ken G. Smith and Michael A. Hitt. Oxford Press. 373-393. Also see http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen//theory/00overview/GreatMinds.htm

Pierson, F.C. (1959) TheEducation of American Businessmen. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company.

Plumlee, D.R., Kachelmeir, S. J., Madeo, S. A., Pratt, J. H., and Krull, G. (2006) “Assessing the shortage of accounting faculty,” Issues in Accounting Education 21 (2): pp. 113-126.

Popper, K. (1934) Logik der Forschung is a 1934 book by Karl Popper. It was originally written in German, but reformulated in English by Popper in 1959 under the title The Logic of Scientific Discovery. Routledge (ISBN 0-415-27844-9).

Rayburn, J.D. (2005) “PowerPoint Slides from the American Accounting Association President’s Address in San Francisco,” August 10: http://aaahq.org/AM2005/menu.htm

Rayburn, J.D. (2006) “President’s Message,” Accounting Education News 33 (1): 1-4.

Rodgers, J. and Williams, P. A. (1996) “Patterns of research productivity and knowledge creation at The Accounting Review: 1967-1993,” The Accounting Historians Journal 23 (1): pp. 51-88.

Sundem, G. (1987) “Overview of Four Years of Submissions to The Accounting Review,” The Accounting Review 62 (1). 191-202.

Sundem, G. (1993) “President’s Message,” Accounting Education News 21 (3). 3.

Tinker, T., Merino. B., and Neimark, M. (1982) “The normative origins of positive theories: ideology and accounting thought,” Accounting Organizations and Society 7 (2): 167-200.

Watts, R. and Zimmerman, J. L. (1978) “Towards a Positive Theory of the Determination of Accounting Standards,” The Accounting Review 53 (1): 112-134.

Watts, R. and and J. L. Zimmerman. 1990. Positive accounting theory: a ten year perspective. The Accounting Review 65 (1): 131-156.

Whitley, R.D. (1988) “The Possibility and Utility of Positive Accounting Theory,” Accounting. Organizations and Society 13 (6): 631-645.

Williams, P.F. (1985) “A Descriptive Analysis of Authorship in The Accounting Review,” The Accounting Review 60 (2): 300-313.

 

Williams, P.F. (2003) “Modern accounting scholarship: the imperative of positive economic science,” Accounting Forum 27 (3): 248-263.

Zeff, S.A. (1966) The American Accounting Association --- The First Fifty Years. Sarasota. FL: The American Accounting Association.

Zeff, S.A. (1978) “The Rise of Economic Consequences,” Journal of Accountancy 154 (12): 56-63.

Zimmerman, J. L. (2001) “Conjectures regarding empirical managerial accounting research” Journal of Accounting and Economics 32 (2): 411-427.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

FIGURE 1

Trend in Joint Authorship of TAR Articles 1926-2005

 

 

.

 


FIGURE 2

Non-Academic Authorship in TAR

 

 


 

FIGURE 3

Numbers of Doctoral Degrees from 2000-2004

 

 

Source: These outcomes are for doctoral graduates of AACSB universities as provided by the AACSB Data Director.

 


 

FIGURE 4

Numbers of Articles Published 1987-2005

 

 

Accounting:  The Accounting Review(TAR) + Accounting Horizons(AH)
Finance: Journal of Finance(JF) + Financial Management(FM)

 


 

FIGURE 5

Articles Per Year in TAR vs. Accounting Horizons

 

 

TAR:  The Accounting Review

AccHor: Accounting Horizons

 


TABLE 1

Most Frequent Appearing Authors in The Accounting Review: 1926-2005

 

 

Rank

                                                              Adjusted

   Author                        Appearances  Appearances

 

 

Rank

                                                              Adjusted

   Author                        Appearances  Appearances

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  1

Littleton, A. C.        

40

38.80

 

45

Ashton, Robert H.       

9

7.00

  2

Bierman, Harold, Jr.    

20

18.33

 

46

Abdel-Khalik, A. Rashad 

9

6.83

  3

Paton, William A.       

20

15.61

 

47

Kaplan, Robert S.       

9

6.83

  4

Kohler, E. L.           

17

15.17

 

48

Krebs, William S.       

9

6.54

  5

Demski, Joel S.          

17

11.67

 

49

Ijiri, Yuji             

9

6.50

  6

Murphy, Mary E.         

16

16.00

 

50

Dopuch, Nicholas        

9

6.00

  7

Avery, Harold G.        

16

15.50

 

51

Hatfield, Henry R.      

9

6.00

  8

Mautz, Robert K.        

16

13.50

 

52

Lev, Baruch             

9

5.83

  9

Dohr, James L.          

14

13.50

 

53

Wildman, John R.        

9

5.10

10

Kerrigan, Harry D.      

14

13.50

 

54

Briggs, L. L.           

8

8.00

11

Greer, Howard C.        

13

12.17

 

55

Chambers, R. J.         

8

8.00

12

Scott, DR              

13

12.17

 

56

Devine, Carl Thomas     

8

8.00

13

Taggart, Herbert F.     

13

11.64

 

57

Garner, S. Paul         

8

8.00

14

Horngren, Charles T.    

13

10.83

 

58

Moyer, C. A.            

8

8.00

15

Revsine, Lawrence       

13

  9.67

 

59

Stettler, Howard F.     

8

8.00

16

Mason, Perry            

12

12.00

 

60

Davidson, Sidney        

8

7.50

17

Husband, George R.      

12

11.33

 

61

Myers, John H.          

8

7.50

18

Lorig, Arthur N.        

12

11.33

 

62

Raby, William L.         

8

7.50

19

Bedford, Norton M.      

12

   .50

 

63

Newlove, G. H.          

8

7.11

20

Cooper, William W.      

12

  5.92

 

64

Usry, Milton F.         

8

7.00

21

Campfield, William L.   

11

11.00

 

65

Rappaport, Alfred       

8

6.50

22

Singer, Frank A.        

11

11.00

 

66

Deakin, Edward B.       

8

6.33

23

Scovill, Hiram T.       

11

  9.83

 

67

Chow, Chee W.           

8

5.17

24

Kinney, William R., Jr. 

11

  7.67

 

68

Jaedicke, Robert K.     

8

5.17

25

Manes, Rene Pierre      

11

  7.33

 

69

Decoster, Don T.        

8

5.00

26

Beaver, William H.      

11

  6.83

 

70

Feltham, Gerald A.      

8

4.83

27

Bowers, Russell         

10

10.00

 

71

Sorter, George H.       

8

4.83

28

Graham, Willard J.      

10

10.00

 

72

Verrecchia, Robert E.   

8

4.83

29

Simon, Sidney I.        

10

10.00

 

73

Ronen, Joshua           

8

4.67

30

Smith, Frank P.         

10

10.00

 

74

Neter, John             

8

4.58

31

Staubus, George J.      

10

10.00

 

75

Larcker, David F.       

8

3.83

32

Moonitz, Maurice        

10

  9.00

 

76

Nelson, Mark W.         

8

3.67

33

Perry, Kenneth W.       

10

  9.00

 

77

Boatsman, James R.      

8

3.25

34

Rorem, C. Rufus         

10

  8.61

 

 

    31 Authors with

7

 

35

Zeff, Stephen A.        

10

  8.50

 

 

    45 Authors with

6

 

36

Mckeown, James C.       

10

  6.33

 

 

    72 Authors with

5

 

37

Benninger, Lawrence J.  

  9

  9.00

 

 

  117 Authors with

4

 

38

Stone, Willard E.       

  9

 9.00

 

 

  234 Authors with

3

 

39

Van Voorhis, Robert H.  

  9

  9.00

 

 

  510 Authors with

2

 

40

Vance, Lawrence L.      

  9

  9.00

 

 

1827 Authors with

1

 

41

Vatter, William J.      

  9

  9.00

 

 

 

 

 

42

Castenholz, William B.  

  9

  8.50

 

 

Total Authors

2913

 

43

Howard, Stanley E.      

  9

  8.50

 

 

Total Appearances

5696

 

44

Morey, Lloyd            

  9

  8.25

 

 

Total Articles

 4209

 

 

 


 

TABLE 2

 Author Appearance Trends (as a Percentage of All Appearances)  
in
The Accounting Review: 1926-2005

 

 

3 or More

4 or More

5 or More

 

1926-46

22.8%

12.4%

8.4%

 

1946-65

19.5%

10.9%

5.6%

 

1966-85

12.4%

7.3%

4.5%

 

1986-05

14.5%

6.0%

0.2%

 

 

 

 

 

 

1926-05

19.8%

11.7%

7.7%

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


TABLE 3

Most Frequent Appearing Institutions in The Accounting Review: 1926-2005

 

 

                    Period: 1926-2005

 

 

                    Period: 1966-1985

 

 

                    Period: 1986-2005

 

 

 

 

Adjusted

 

 

 

Adjusted

 

 

 

Adjusted

Rank

Institution

Appearances

Appearances

Rank

Institution

Appearances

Appearances

Rank

Institution

Appearances

Appearances

1

Illinois

272

224.94

1

Texas

78

51.08

1

Indiana

45

19.17

2

Texas

158

106.08

2

Illinois

50

33.83

2

Texas

43

21.50

3

Michigan

123

95.67

3

U. Washington

44

29.83

3

Pennsylvania

41

19.83

4

Chicago

118

92.67

4

Stanford

43

29.33

4

Michigan

34

23.17

5

UC Berkeley

109

93.67

5

Penn State

41

28.00

5

Cornell

34

17.17

6

U. Washington

105

75.33

6

Chicago

40

30.42

6

U. Washington

31

17.67

7

Michigan State

104

72.33

7

Michigan State

40

26.00

7

Iowa

30

14.33

8

Northwestern

102

74.17

8

Northwestern

37

24.42

8

Stanford

28

15.58

9

Stanford

99

68.58

9

Purdue

36

21.50

9

Illinois

26

13.50

10

Pennsylvania

93

68.83

10

Iowa

33

20.33

10

Southern California

26

11.50

11

Indiana

84

50.98

11

Michigan

31

21.83

11

Notre Dame

25

12.58

12

Penn State

76

55.75

12

NYU             

31

19.67

12

Michigan State

25

11.33

13

Cornell

74

48.33

13

Carnegie Mellon

30

16.33

13

NYU              

24

12.75

14

NYU

73

48.42

14

Cornell

28

20.33

14

Columbia

23

13.83

15

Columbia

72

57.77

15

Oklahoma State

27

18.50

15

Arizona

23

13.00

16

Iowa

69

40.67

16

Georgia

27

15.58

16

Chicago

21

13.25

17

Missouri

67

45.87

17

Wisconsin

25

16.17

17

Duke

21

10.58

18

Ohio State

66

49.31

18

Kansas

24

18.17

18

North Carolina

21

10.42

19

Wisconsin

63

41.75

19

Florida

24

17.67

19

Wisconsin

21

9.58

20

Carnegie Mellon

62

37.08

20

Arizona State

24

14.83

20

Florida

20

12.00

21

Southern California

59

39.81

21

UC Berkeley

22

20.67

21

Northwestern

20

11.83

22

UCLA

56

50.25

22

Missouri

22

17.33

22

Arizona State

20

9.50

23

Harvard

56

45.00

23

Virginia Tech

21

14.33

23

Baruch

20

9.17

25

Florida

56

41.67

25

North Carolina

20

14.33

25

UC Berkeley

18

11.33

25

Minnesota

53

33.00

25

Tel Aviv

19

7.67

25

Emory

18

9.17

26

North Carolina

50

33.25

26

Indiana

18

13.33

26

Missouri

18

8.17

27

Washington U.

50

32.91

27

Minnesota

18

9.33

27

Washington U.

17

10.83

28

Purdue

49

29.00

28

Massachusetts

17

12.67

28

Florida State

17

7.17

29

Arizona State

45

25.33

29

Ohio State

17

12.50

29

Ohio State

16

8.17

30

Rochester

44

33.00

30

South California

16

12.17

30

Hong Kong

16

7.67

 

Arizona

44

27.33

 

Arizona

16

9.33

 

Texas A&M

16

6.75

 

Georgia

44

24.75

 

SUNY Albany

16

8.5

 

 

 

 

 

Total All Authors

   5,696

 

 

Total All Authors

    1,834

 

 

Total All Authors

   1,453

 


 

 

TABLE 4

Leading Authors in The Accounting Review: 1986-2005

 

Name

Appearances

Adjusted Appearances

Nelson, Mark W.

8

3.67

Verrecchia, Robert E.

7

3.83

Barth, Mary E.

7

3.67

Bonner, Sarah G.

7

3.17

Francis, Jere R.

7

3.00

Baginski, Stephen P.

7

2.75

Banker, Rajiv D.

7

2.67

Landsman, Wayne R.

6

2.92

Maines, Laureen A.

6

2.17

Sansing, Richard C.

5

3.50

Bartov, Eli

5

3.33

Kinney, William R., Jr.

5

3.33

Rajan, Madhav V.

5

2.83

Khurana, Inder K.

5

2.67

Kachelmeier, Steven J.

5

2.33

Barron, Orie E.

5

2.25

Libby, Robert

5

2.17

Hassell, John M.

5

2.00

Bowen, Robert M.

5

1.83

Authors with 4 appearances

45

 

Authors with 3 appearances

87

 

Authors with 2 appearances

131

 

Authors with 1 appearance

459

 

 


TABLE 5

Leading Doctoral Degree Alma Maters of Authors in The Accounting Review

 

 

                    Period: 1926-2005

 

 

                    Period: 1966-1985

 

 

                    Period: 1986-2005

 

 

 

 

Adjusted

 

 

 

Adjusted

 

 

 

Adjusted

Rank

Institution

Appearances

Appearances

Rank

Institution

Appearances

Appearances

Rank

Institution

Appearances

Appearances

1

Illinois

470

373.37

1

Illinois

163

118.58

1

Michigan

70

37.75

2

Michigan

307

242.84

2

Texas

85

54.58

2

Illinois

69

34.00

3

Chicago

269

209.44

3

Michigan State

81

58.50

3

Chicago

68

39.50

4

Texas

208

146.58

4

Ohio State

80

55.25

4

Stanford

66

32.08

5

Ohio State

173

115.17

5

Chicago

76

61.00

5

Texas

60

33.00

6

Stanford

139

88.75

6

Michigan

75

53.67

6

U. Washington

55

31.92

7

UC Berkeley

130

99.92

7

Stanford

63

47.17

7

Iowa

53

27.00

8

Minnesota

130

93.75

8

Minnesota

47

29.83

8

Ohio State

52

25.42

9

Michigan State

130

90.33

9

Wisconsin

44

32.00

9

Indiana

40

17.58

10

Indiana

127

90.75

10

UC Berkeley

43

31.67

10

UC Berkeley

39

22.42

11

Columbia

118

91.85

11

Indiana

40

29.00

11

Cornell

39

20.75

12

Northwestern

99

72.50

12

Carnegie Mellon

39

22.50

12

Florida

36

17.67

13

U. Washington

94

62.08

13

Penn State

39

20.83

13

Michigan State

33

17.83

14

NYU

85

63.67

14

NYU             

35

26.17

14

Arizona

32

18.00

15

Iowa

85

53.83

15

U. Washington

33

24.67

15

Minnesota

32

16.25

16

Wisconsin

79

52.35

16

Cornell

32

20.33

16

Northwestern

30

17.33

17

Cornell

75

44.08

17

Purdue

32

16.08

17

Carnegie Mellon

29

15.58

18

Pennsylvania

71

57.50

18

Northwestern

29

18.17

18

Wisconsin

28

15.58

19

Carnegie Mellon

69

39.08

19

Florida

27

21.50

19

Rochester

26

11.67

20

Florida

66

41.67

20

North Carolina

24

17.83

20

NYU       

25

13.50

21

Penn State

62

33.33

21

Louisiana State

22

18.83

21

Penn State

23

12.50

22

Harvard

56

40.33

22

Oregon

19

14.00

22

Arizona State

23

10.58

23

North Carolina

48

31.42

23

UCLA             

19

14.00

23

Pennsylvania

21

10.50

25

Arizona

46

29.50

25

Missouri

19

13.67

25

Columbia

21

9.33

25

Purdue

45

24.25

25

Alabama

19

12.17

25

North Carolina

20

10.08

26

LSU

41

35.08

26

Washington U.

16

9.83

26

Pittsburgh

19

10.83

27

Missouri

39

28.42

27

Kansas

16

8.67

27

Harvard

19

9.33

28

Arizona State

39

21.33

28

Iowa

15

11.50

28

Florida State

14

6.00

29

Southern California

38

28.00

29

Arkansas

15

10.33

29

Southern California

13

6.83

30

UCLA

37

27.92

30

Arizona State

15

10.25

30

Oregon

13

5.75

 

Pittsburgh

37

27.17

 

Maryland

15

7.50

 

 

 

 

 


 [NH1]