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Abstract
This article is a historical review and analysis of the first 50 years of Accounting and Business Research.
Acknowledgements
The authors express gratitude to Ben Brewster and Alice Laird, at the ICAEW Library, for supplying copies of ICAEW committee and Council files from the off-site London Metropolitan Archives. They are also grateful for the comments and suggestions on earlier drafts from current and past members of ABR’s senior editorial staff, and from Chris Chapman.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 Kenneth Peasnell, who alone was labelled as ‘managing editor’ from 2001 to 2006, was assisted by two ‘editors’. Subsequent (top) editors were assisted by two or more ‘associate editors’. These sub-editors will be identified later in the article.
2 The authors will not comment on the articles included in ABR’s special issues, because they were not representative of the general run of submissions to the journal.
3 Further background on this story may be found in Stamp (Citation1970, Citation1981), Solomons and Zeff (Citation1996, Introduction), Zeff (Citation1972, pp. 27–38), Edwards (Citation2019, pp. 301–312), and Interview with Michael Renshall (Citation2009, pp. 38–39).
4 Minutes of the meeting of the Journals Sub-Committee, 4 June 1969, point 6.
5 Minutes of the meeting of the General Purposes and Finance Committee, 23 July 1969, point 4.
6 Minutes of the ordinary meeting of the Council on 5 November 1969.
7 An obituary on Walter Taplin, written by Geoffrey Holmes, appears in number 62 (Spring 1986) of the journal.
8 Minutes of the meetings of the Journals Sub-Committee, 12 May 1970, point 3; 1 July 1970, point 4; and 2 December 1970, point 5.
9 This journal is known today as The International Journal of Accounting.
10 The winning article was ‘Depreciation and Business Decision-Making’, by Anthony H.M. Bennett, a United Nations consultant based in Nigeria. The offer of a prize was not repeated for 1973.
11 The subscription rate ascended to £10 per volume by 1975, as production costs had been exceeding subscription income.
12 Based on e-mails received from Tom A. Lee, dated 6 and 9 November 2019.
13 Minutes of the meeting of the ICAEW’s Journals Sub-Committee, 4 February 1974, point 2.
14 An obituary on Parker, written by Christopher Nobes, appeared in vol. 46, no. 7 (2016) of the journal.
15 Those based outside of England were Tom Lee and David Tweedie (Scotland), Ronald Ma and Peter Standish (Australia), and David Solomons and Bryan Carsberg (USA). All were citizens of British Commonwealth countries, yet Solomons had acquired US citizenship by then. The first member of the board of editorial referees who was not a citizen of a British Commonwealth country was Stephen Zeff, an American, in the Spring 1983 issue. Zeff persuaded Parker to change the dimensions of the journal from the A4 size that was associated more with professional journals to a reduced size more in common with other academic research journals, effective with issue number 53 (Winter 1983). It was not until the Summer 1986 issue that two more board members were appointed who were not citizens of Commonwealth countries: Philip W. Bell and Lawrence Revsine, both Americans. All the while, Parker was adding members to the board from the UK and Australia, such that its size ascended to 26. In the Spring 1988 issue a fourth American was added to the board, David Burgstahler.
16 The authors are grateful to Mark Clatworthy for compiling this list.
17 Communication received from Christopher Nobes, dated 19 November 2019.
18 Communication received from Christopher Nobes, dated 19 November 2019. See Nobes et al. (Citation1993).
19 See also Jeff Pearcy, ‘Accounting Standards – Boon or Curse: A Comment’ (Summer 1982, no. 47) and W.T. Baxter, ‘Accounting Standards – Boor or Curse?: A Reply’ (Winter 1982, no. 49).
20 Conversation with Christopher Nobes, 13 November 2019.
21 Communication received from Christopher Nobes, dated 19 November 2019.
22 Communication received from Christopher Nobes, dated 19 November 2019.
23 See also Len Skerratt and Geoffrey Whittington, ‘Does the Nobes Cycle Exist, and if so, What Does it Signify?’ (Spring 1992, no. 86).
24 Communication received from Kevin Keasey, dated 21 November 2019.
25 Communications received from Kevin Keasey, dated 21 and 22 November 2019. Used with permission.
26 In fact, since the beginning, the Winter issue has always been regarded as the first issue in each volume, as the pagination for the four annual issues has begun in that issue. If the journal were to have shown volume numbers, each one would run from Winter to Autumn, bridging two calendar years. Finally, in 1995/96, following the 100th quarterly issue, the hard-copy journal began to display volume numbers, beginning with volume 26.
27 The next appearance in ABR of a list of ad hoc reviewers was not until vol. 44, no. 2 (2014).
28 Following the Autumn 2001 issue, the issues were identified only by volume and number and year, no longer by the seasons. This change was probably made to accommodate readers in the Southern Hemisphere, whose seasons are, of course, the opposite. The issue that would have been Winter 2001 became instead Vol. 32, No. 1 (2002). Henceforth, each volume corresponded with a calendar year.
29 Lin and Walker’s paper was unique in describing their results as ‘both statistically and economically significant’. It is very unusual for authors to address the economic significance of their research.
30 Peasnell, Pope and Young came very close to recognizing an economic effect. They found ‘economically plausible levels of accruals management’.
31 Communications received from Kenneth Peasnell and Mahmoud Ezzamel, dated 27–29 November 2019.
32 Communications received from Brian Singleton-Green, dated 11 November 2019, from Gillian Knight and Richard Macve, dated 25 November 2019, and from Pauline Weetman, dated 3 December 2019.
33 See also Warwick Funnell, ‘Further Evidence on the Roots of Public Sector Operational (Value-for-Money) Auditing: A Response to Flesher and Zarzeski’ (vol. 34, no. 3, 2004).
34 Communication received from Miles Gietzmann, dated 26 November 2019.
35 Much of this section is based on communications received from Brian Singleton-Green and Gillian Knight, dated 19 and 25 November 2019, respectively.
36 A major reason for July as the month of publication was that the ICAEW wanted to be able to ship copies of the IAPF issue to the American Accounting Association each year in time to be available for distribution at the Association’s annual meeting, which was held during the first half of August. Communications from Mark Clatworthy and Gillian Knight, dated 12 and 13 December 2019, respectively.
37 The 2006 and 2007 editions of the IAPF special issue were not given a number; thus, four numbered issues were published in volumes 36 and 37. Beginning with volume 38 (2008), the IAPF special issue was numbered 3, and five numbered issues were published in a volume. Beginning in 2013, the IAPF special issue was numbered 4, which became 5 beginning in 2016.
38 Communication received from Pauline Weetman, dated 11 November 2019.
39 Communication received from Pauline Weetman, dated 3 December 2019.
40 In 2014, the RAE was succeeded by the Research Excellence Framework (REF).
41 Communication received from Pauline Weetman, dated 3 December 2019.
42 Communication received from Pauline Weetman, dated 11 November 2019.
43 Communication received from Pauline Weetman, dated 3 December 2019.
44 Beginning with vol. 42, no. 3, the publisher gave a month and year for each issue.
45 Copies of the minutes of the three annual meetings during the Beattie era may be obtained from the authors. Minutes were not kept for subsequent annual meetings.
46 Communication received from Mark Clatworthy, dated 9 November 2019.
47 Communication received from Mark Clatworthy, Juan Manuel García Lara, and Edward Lee, dated 1 January 2020, and from Mark Clatworthy, dated 9 January 2020.
48 The figures for 2018 were reported in vol. 49, no. 6, drawn from the 2018 issue of Journal Citation Reports.
49 The authors express gratitude to Mark Clatworthy, Juan Manuel García Lara, and Yang Li for gathering and analyzing the data.
50 ESG signifies Environmental, Social and Governance.
51 For the experience of another generalist, bridging journal, Accounting Horizons, see Zeff and Dyckman (Citation2018).