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Convergence among academic journals in accounting: a note

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Abstract

In this study, we investigate the ranking convergence pattern of 24 accounting journals across 13 established academic journal lists by applying the Phillips and Sul (Econometrica 75(6), 1771–1855, 2007; J Appl Econom 24(7), 1153–1185, 2009) methodology. The motivation is to provide a long-term perspective regarding the future convergence of accounting journals. Our main hypothesis is that the current competition among academics for a top publication will lead several outlets to meliorate their position and shift academic perception in their favour. As a result, these journals will improve their ranking and converge towards top-tier outlets. The findings incur that journals mainly converge into two clubs. The first club comprises the Top 50 Financial Times listed journals, while the second club includes the rest. We argue that journals such as Management Accounting Research and European Accounting Review, appear to converge with the top-tier (club one) journals, thus confirming our main hypothesis. The transition paths further validate the main findings of the study. We also conduct statistical analysis to investigate what drives club convergence. All in all, this paper makes an important contribution to the literature by identifying and analysing convergence patterns in the ranking of accounting academic journals.

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Notes

  1. Given that acceptance rate in top five accounting journals hovers around the 10% mark, it is only logical that the journals ranked right below the top ones are getting an increasing amount of quality submissions.

  2. This hypothesis is in line with Oler et al. (2016) who find that publishing in top journals in accounting seems to be more difficult compared to other business disciplines.

  3. A notable exception is the work of Beattie and Goodacre, (2006).

  4. See https://www.informs.org/Blogs/ManSci-Blogs/From-the-Editor/Management-Science-Accounting-Department.

  5. See Apergis et al. (2013) for an overview of the advantages of this particular convergence algorithm.

  6. Ordinal variables (journal ranking) with four categories can be treated as continuous variables (Robitzsch, 2020).

  7. As in Phillips and Sul (2007, 2009), we set r equal to 0.3.

  8. For DEN this can be explained by the fact that it ranks journals with only two values (e.g., Max = 4 or Min = 1) and characterizes them either as ‘World Class’ or ‘Other’.

  9. See Appendix for journals’ abbreviations.

  10. Publishing in the discipline of Economics and Business can take twice the time that it takes in medical sciences (Björk and Solomon, 2013), while publishing in top accounting journals can routinely take up to three years.

  11. The average time it takes for EAR and MAR to issue a first decision is 21 and 39 days, respectively. The figures for EAR are reported in https://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?show=journalMetrics&journalCode=rear20, while the figures for MAR are located in https://journalinsights.elsevier.com/journals/1044-5005/review_speed.

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Acknowledgements

We thank two anonymous referees of this journal for useful comments and suggestions. The usual disclaimer applies.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Economics, University of Piraeus, 80 Karaoli and Dimitriou Street, 18534, Piraeus, Greece

    Konstantinos Eleftheriou, Patroklos Patsoulis & Michael Polemis

  2. Hellenic Competition Commission, Athens, Greece

    Michael Polemis

  3. Department of Economics and Business, Neapolis University Pafos, 2 Danais Avenue, 8042, Paphos, Cyprus

    Patroklos Patsoulis

  4. Hellenic Open University, Patras, Greece

    Michael Polemis

Authors
  1. Konstantinos Eleftheriou
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  2. Patroklos Patsoulis
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Correspondence to Konstantinos Eleftheriou.

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Appendix

Appendix

  1. A.

    Accounting journals (abbreviation)

    Abacus (ABACUS).

    Accounting Auditing and Accountability Journal (AAAJ).

    Accounting Horizons (AH).

    Accounting Organizations and Society (AOS).

    Accounting and Business Research (ABR).

    Administrative Science Quarterly (ASQ).

    British Journal of Management (BJM).

    Contemporary Accounting Research (CAR).

    European Accounting Review (EAR).

    Journal of Accounting Research (JAR).

    Journal of Accounting and Economics (JAE).

    Journal of Accounting and Public Policy (JAPP).

    Journal of Accounting, Auditing and Finance (JAAF).

    Journal of Business Finance and Accounting (JBFA).

    Journal of Finance (JF).

    Journal of Financial Economics (JFE).

    Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis (JFQA).

    Journal of Futures Markets (JFM).

    Journal of Small Business Management (JSBM).

    Management Accounting Research (MAR).

    Management Science (MS).

    Review of Accounting Studies (RAS).

    Review of Financial Studies (RFS).

    The Accounting Review (TAR).

  2. B.

    Journal lists used in the analysis (abbreviation)

    Association of Business Schools Academic Journal Quality Guide (CABS).

    Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS).

    Australian Business Deans Council Journal Rankings List (ABDC).

    ESSEC Business School Paris (ESSEC).

    Foundation National pour l’Enseignement de la Gestion des Entreprises (FNEG).

    Erasmus Research Institute of Management Journals Listing (EJL).

    Association of Professors of Business in German Speaking Countries (VHB).

    Danish Ministry Journal list (DEN).

    SCImago (SJR).

    High Council for Evaluation of Research and Higher Education (HCERES).

    University of Queensland Adjusted ERA Rankings List (UQ).

    European Journal of Information Systems 2007 Mingers & Harzing (EJIS).

    WU Wien Journal Rating May 2008 (WIE).

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Eleftheriou, K., Patsoulis, P. & Polemis, M. Convergence among academic journals in accounting: a note. Scientometrics 128, 1055–1069 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-022-04588-z

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