The Role of Gatekeepers in Shifting Accounting Research Agenda: Empirical Evidence from The Accounting Review

• In Event: Public Interest 3

Abstract

If the accounting publishing market is inefficient, then an observed change in accounting research agenda has to be associated with factors beyond randomness. Members of editorial boards publishing in journals in the accounting discipline may contribute to the revolution in inquiry in accounting. The line of research that was popular prior to the change may no longer be perceived as such after the accounting academic community adopt to a new doctrine. An accounting researcher wishing to publish in leading accounting journals controlled by the promoters of the new dogma should become aware of what researchable ideas deemed “interesting” under the predominant paradigm. This study finds that the American Accounting Association (AAA)’s premier journal – The Accounting Review (TAR)-- experienced a shift which limits its scope to the new stream of research, despite the fact that the AAA has not yet execute the mission for which its premier journal was established. More importantly, this study finds an association between this shift and members of TAR’s journal editorial board publishing articles in TAR.

Author

• Khalid Rasheed Al-Adeem, King Saud University