Proceedings of 34th International Business Research Conference
4 - 5 April 2016, Imperial College, London, UK, ISBN: 978-1-925488-02-9
An Identification of the Accounting Topical Areas and
Quantitative Techniques Used in Three Accounting
Journals
Melis Ercan and Emrah Onder
In this study 282 articles were analyzed in three leading accounting journals namely
Contemporary Accounting Research (CAR), Journal of Accounting Research (JAR),
and Review of Accounting Studies (RAST) for the period 2010–2015. The accounting
literature was examined based on two dimensions topical areas and quantitative
techniques. Determining the type of quantitative analysis (regression analysis, logistic
regression, factor analysis etc.) and classifying the accounting topical areas (auditing,
financial, managerial, accounting information systems (AIS), tax, and other) are our
main aim in this research. Findings of our research shows that regression analysis is
the most common techniques used in accounting researches and financial topical area
is the most popular research area for accounting researchers. Topical areas such as
AIS and Tax are least popular topical areas and they are lacking in quantitative
techniques.
Keywords: Accounting, Statistics, Research Methods,
Regression Analysis, Quantitative Research, Journals
Literature
Review,
Field of Research: Accounting
1. Introduction
Three journals analyzed in our study were chosen from SCImago Journal & Country
Rank’s journal rankings in accounting subject category of business, management,
and accounting subject area for the year 2014. Three journals were selected by their
names contains the word “accounting” without other subject categories. JAR ranked
number 5, CAR ranked number 8 and RAST ranked 13 among 121 journals. The
overview, aim and scope of three journals are as follows:
Contemporary Accounting Research (CAR): It has been published since 1984, is
the world-renowned quarterly journal of the “Canadian Academic Accounting
Association (CAAA)”. CAR has grown both in size and in popularity, and now finds
itself ranked in the top handful of academic accounting journals worldwide. Serving a
global audience, CAR is of particular interest to accounting academics, PhD
students, and practitioners. CAR is a multi-focus journal that accepts and publishes
academic papers from any area of accounting, auditing, and tax
research. CAR seeks to reflect the worldwide intellectual diversity in accounting
research. Therefore, CAR welcomes interesting and intellectually rigorous work in all
topic areas of accounting, using any appropriate method, and based in any discipline
or research tradition that can contribute to accounting knowledge (The Canadian
Academic Accounting Association, 2016).
Journal of Accounting Research (JAR): It has been published since 1963 by the
Accounting Research Center at the University of Chicago Booth School Of Business.
It is a general-interest accounting journal. It publishes original research in all areas of
___________________________________________________________
Melis ERCAN, Ph.D.*, Istanbul University, School of Transportation and Logistics, Department of
Transportation and Logistics, Turkey, Email: mercan@istanbul.edu.tr
Emrah ONDER, Ph.D.**, Istanbul University, School of Business, Department of Quantitative
Techniques, Turkey, Email: emrah@istanbul.edu.tr
Proceedings of 34th International Business Research Conference
4 - 5 April 2016, Imperial College, London, UK, ISBN: 978-1-925488-02-9
accounting that utilizes tools from basic disciplines such as economics, statistics,
psychology, and sociology. This research typically uses analytical, empirical archival,
experimental, and field study methods and addresses economic questions in
accounting, auditing, taxation, and related fields such as corporate finance,
investments, capital markets, law, and information economics. The journal publishes
four regular issues and one conference issue each year. The conference issue
contains papers from the annual accounting research conference held at the
University of Chicago (Onlinelibrary.wiley.com, 2016).
Review of Accounting Studies (RAST): It has been published since 1996. The
Review of Accounting Studies is owned and published four times a year by Springer.
It provides an outlet for significant academic research in accounting including
theoretical, empirical, and experimental work. The journal is committed to the
principle that distinctive scholarship is rigorous. While the editors encourage all forms
of research, it must contribute to the discipline of accounting (Wharton University of
Pennsylvania Accounting Department Research, 2016).
Topical areas were classified same with Coyne et al. (2010) described in their study.
They used the following definitions to classify each article by topical area. The
definitions are as follows:
AIS: studies which address issues related to the systems and the users of systems
that collect, store, and generate accounting information. Users are defined broadly to
include those involved in collection, storage, or use of accounting information, or
even the implementation of the system. These systems may be electronic or not.
Research streams include, but are not limited to, design science, ontological
investigations, expert systems, decision aides, support systems, processing
assurance, security, controls, system usability, and system performance.
Auditing: studies in which the topical content involves an audit topic. These studies
vary widely and include, but are not limited to, the study of the audit environment
external and internal, auditor decision-making, auditor independence, the effects of
auditing on the financial reporting process, and auditor fees.
Financial: studies that address the topical content of financial accounting, financial
markets, and decision-making based on financial accounting information.
Managerial: studies that examine issues regarding budgeting, compensation,
decision making within an enterprise, incentives, and the allocation of resources
within an enterprise.
Tax: studies that examine issues related to taxpayer decision-making, tax
allocations, tax computations, structuring of accounting transactions to meet tax
goals, tax incentives, or market reactions to tax disclosures.
Other: studies that do not fit into one of the other topical areas. The topical areas in
these studies vary significantly and include such things as education, methodologies,
The purpose of this study was to categorize and analyze the articles in three
accounting journals by their topical areas and quantitative techniques used.
Proceedings of 34th International Business Research Conference
4 - 5 April 2016, Imperial College, London, UK, ISBN: 978-1-925488-02-9
This study was organized as follows: In section 2, the literature review of subjects
covered in this study was provided. In section 3, the methodology was given. In
section 4 and 5, the findings/discussions, and summary/conclusions were given.
2. Literature Review
Martin, Davis and Krapels 2012 compared the top six journals selected in an earlier
survey of Association for Business Communication members as the top journals in
which to publish for professional advancement. They used the variables found in
other disciplines’ journal assessment articles, comparisons were made with the
following: length of articles published, disciplines of authors, statistical methodology
included, major discipline of article focus, number of references included, and
research methods used with sample size where appropriate. The analysis involved
each article in the six journals over 11 years of publication (1996-2007). 2,078
articles were analyzed. They found out top 10 statistical methods that were used in
the journals as descriptive, correlation, modelling/theory, regression (all regression
types in one category), factor analysis, chi-square, content analysis, discrete time
logic analysis, interactions/post hoc tests, and standard deviation.
Crawford-Welch and McCleary 1992 analyzed 653 articles in five leading hospitalityrelated journals for the period 1983–1989. Objectives of the study were to determine
(a) the nature of hospitality writing and research to date (qualitative or quantitative),
(b) the focus of hospitality publications to date (marketing, finance, administration,
human resources, operations, research and development, economics) and (c) the
type of statistical analysis used in hospitality research to date, i.e. the use of
descriptive or inferential multivariate statistics. In the 653 articles analyzed, there
were 293 uses of statistics other than frequencies. Many articles used more than one
statistical technique. They found that the field of hospitality administration is lacking
in rigorous and sophisticated quantitative research. T-test (Z-test), regression
analysis, and chi-square were the most common statistical techniques used in the
articles analyzed. They also found that the functional area of marketing had the
highest percentage of using statistical techniques.
Oler, Oler, and Skousen 2010, Dunbar and Weber 2014 analyzed the journals by
using citations. They ranked the journals by topical areas (audit, financial, tax, etc.)
and research methodology (archival, experimental, theoretical, etc.). Oler, Oler, and
Skousen 2010 stated that financial accounting was becoming increasingly dominant
except for two journals (Contemporary Accounting Research (CAR) and Accounting
Organizations, and Society (AOS)) and other topics were declining. Chan et al. 2009
ranked accounting journals using dissertation citation analysis. They used citations
from accounting dissertations completed during 1999–2003. They also ranked the
accounting journals based on topical areas and research methods. The 247
dissertations generated 6386 successfully matched accounting journal citations. As a
result they found that financial accounting accounted for the largest number of
dissertations (136 of 247), followed by managerial accounting, a distant second with
37 dissertations.
Dykxhoorn and Sinning 2010 summarized the Journal of International Accounting,
Auditing and Taxation (JIAAT) between 2002-2010 by 82 articles and six special
studies and analyze the types of topics and methodologies the authors used to
enhance their understanding of the international accounting issues facing the
accountancy profession. They found that financial accounting and reporting
Proceedings of 34th International Business Research Conference
4 - 5 April 2016, Imperial College, London, UK, ISBN: 978-1-925488-02-9
comprised the majority of publications, research in the areas of taxation and auditing
made up a sizable percentage of the publications during the 2002–2010 period.
Pickerd et al. 2011 ranked individual accounting researchers based on their
research productivity in the most recent six, 12, and 20 years. They extended prior
individual faculty rankings by providing separate individual faculty research rankings
for each topical area commonly published in accounting journals (accounting
information systems (AIS), audit, financial, managerial, and tax) and for each
research methodology commonly used by accounting researchers (analytical,
archival, and experimental) for the years 1999 to 2009. They found that some
professors publish widely in a variety of topical areas. Their results showed that it is
relatively common to publish papers in multiple topical areas.
Coyne et al. 2010 ranked accounting research programs constructed from
publication counts in top eleven journals. They categorized each article written by
topical area (auditing, financial, managerial, accounting information systems, tax,
and other) and by methodology (analytical, archival, experimental, and other) and
provided separate accounting program rankings by topical area and by methodology.
Their results indicated that big three accounting journals as The Accounting Review
(TAR), Journal of Accounting Research (JAR), and Journal of Accounting &
Economics (JAE), The Accounting Review (TAR) publishes the broadest topical
scope of articles. Accounting, Organizations and Society (AOS) and Behavioral
Research in Accounting (BRIA) are the only nonspecialty-topic journals that publish a
higher percentage of articles in an area other than financial (AOS publishes more
managerial than any other topical area and BRIA publishes more “other” research
and auditing than any other topical area). And also, the almost complete lack of
publication of AIS research in any journal other than Journal of Accounting
Information Systems (JIS).
3. The Methodology
We began the data collection by accessing three journals chosen from SCImago
Journal & Country Rank’s journal rankings during the period 2010-2015. The total
number of articles reviewed across three journals was 282. We randomly chose 113
articles from CAR (total 288 articles), 92 articles from JAR (total 187 articles) and 77
articles from RAST (total 239 articles). The accounting topical area classification
coding was performed by accounting expert and quantitative analysis classification
coding was performed by quantitative techniques expert. The data was compiled in
Ms Excel file with the column labels “Journal ID”, “Article ID”, “Year”, “Auditing”,
“Financial”, “Managerial”, “AIS”, “Tax”, “Other” and “Analysis”. Ms Excel’s macro
record and advanced filter facilities were used for evaluation process.
4. The Findings/Discussions
The first analysis was on the topical areas of the research for determining which
accounting topical areas had been researched the most extensively.
Proceedings of 34th International Business Research Conference
4 - 5 April 2016, Imperial College, London, UK, ISBN: 978-1-925488-02-9
Table 1: Number of Articles by Topical Area Published in Different Journals
Journal Name
Auditing Financial Managerial AIS Tax Other Total
Contemporary Accounting Research (113)
26
60
18
3
7
25
139
Journal of Accounting Research (92)
10
55
18
1
5
5
94
Review of Accounting Studies (77)
12
60
17
0
5
4
98
48
175
53
4
17
34
331
Total
Table 1 shows that in all three accounting journals the topical area which received
the highest level of attention by writers was “Financial” topical area. Some articles
involves more than one topical areas. Therefore the sum of topical areas is more
than total articles examined. “Financial” was the dominant topical area in journals
and 62% of the articles were concerned with “Financial” topical area.
Figure 1. Number of Articles by Topical Area Published in Different Journals
“Managerial” and “Auditing” areas to which the articles related were second and third
popular areas respectively. But their popularity is relatively close to each other.
Figure 1 shows that in all three accounting journals the topical area which received
the lowest level of attention by writers was “AIS” topical area.
Table 2: Topical Areas of Articles by Quantitative Techniques
Auditing
Financia
l
ANOVA, ANCOVA, MANOVA
2
8
4
2
2
3
21
CORRELATION ANALYSIS
0
1
1
0
0
0
2
COST-BENEFIT ANALYSIS
1
2
0
0
0
0
3
COX REGRESSION
0
1
0
1
0
1
3
DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS
0
1
0
0
0
0
1
FACTOR ANALYSIS
1
0
1
0
0
1
3
LOGISTIC REGRESSION
12
23
8
0
4
2
49
MATHEMATICAL MODEL
2
14
5
1
2
6
30
PANEL DATA ANALYSIS
0
4
1
0
0
1
6
PROBIT REGRESSION
4
11
3
0
2
2
22
REGRESSION
26
103
26
0
6
18
179
Analysis
Manageria
AIS Tax Other TOTAL
l
Proceedings of 34th International Business Research Conference
4 - 5 April 2016, Imperial College, London, UK, ISBN: 978-1-925488-02-9
STRUCTURAL EQUATION MODEL
0
1
0
0
0
0
1
T TEST
0
1
1
0
0
0
2
TIME SERIES ANALYSIS
0
3
1
0
0
0
4
TOBIT REGRESSION
0
1
2
0
0
0
3
TOTAL
48
174
53
4
16
34
329
Second investigation was the quantitative techniques of the articles published. Table
2 and Figure 2 show the number of topical areas of the articles by quantitative
techniques used. In the 329 topical areas analyzed there were 179 use regression
analysis.
Figure 2: Topical Areas of Articles by Quantitative Techniques
5. Summary and Conclusions
In this paper, we analyzed the articles in three accounting journals (CAR, JAR, and
RAST) according to their topical areas and quantitative techniques used. Topical
areas such as AIS and Tax are lacking in quantitative techniques. Considerably more
attention needs to be focused in AIS and Tax topical areas. Regression analysis and
type of regression analysis namely cox, probit, logistic, tobit etc. are most common
techniques used in accounting researches. Financial topical area may be popular
because of data availability and accessibility. More quantitative data can be
accessed relatively easier by researchers in financial topical area. Accounting
researchers may use different quantitative analysis other than regression analysis for
evaluating interesting conclusions. We believe that future researches in accounting
should incorporate the use of some popular quantitative techniques such as panel
data analysis and structural equation model for inferring more complex patterns.
Proceedings of 34th International Business Research Conference
4 - 5 April 2016, Imperial College, London, UK, ISBN: 978-1-925488-02-9
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