Accounting research in the Asia–Pacific region: an update

Abstract

We provide an updated study of accounting research in the Asia–Pacific region using the publication records of six premier accounting journals (top-6) from 1991 to 2010, and augment the findings with the broader range of publications from an additional twenty accounting journals during the same period. Overall, the higher education institutions (HEIs) in the region produced 7.7 and 11.1 % of the total weighted number of articles (wt-articles) in the top-6 and 20 accounting journals. Interestingly, HEIs in the region exhibit a trend toward an increase in the yearly wt-articles and relative percentage of the total. The general performance of the accounting programs in the region is persistent during 1991–2010. The Asia–Pacific accounting programs are particularly successful in placing publications in journals such as Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting. The accounting research productivity, however, is dominated by select institutions in Australia, Hong Kong, New Zealand, and Singapore. Several institutions in these four countries/areas maintain a consistently high ranking. In terms of top-6 accounting journal publications, the top five institutions are the University of New South Wales, Nanyang Technological University, the University of Melbourne, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, and Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. The percentage share of the research output among the top five institutions is high, suggesting that a high hurdle is set for up-and-coming institutions to move up the rankings.

Appendix: Selection of quality accounting journals for the sample

The appendix explains the selection of accounting journals for the sample. We begin with the set of 24 journals used in the global ranking from Chan et al. (2007a, b). The 24 journals are denoted (*) in column (1). In order to consider additional quality journals, we include all other “A” rated accounting journals in the Australian Business Dean Council (ABDC). These other “A” rated journals [not in Chan et al. (2007a, b)] are: Accounting Horizons, Critical Perspectives on Accounting, Financial Accountability and Management, International Journal of Accounting, and Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Economics. We then use the five diverse journal ranking rating results to provide additional screening. These five journal ranking/rating criteria are:

• Whether a journal is included in the Chan et al. (2005) accounting program rankings for the Asian-Pacific region;

• Whether a journal is included in Roger Loh’s (Singapore Management University) accounting journal rankings (1A, 1B, 2A, and 2B, with 1A as the highest quality). This ranking is available at http://www.mysmu.edu/faculty/rogerloh/links/journal_rankings.htm;

• Whether a journal is included in accounting journal ratings used by the National Science Foundation (NSC) of Taiwan (we use only journals with ratings of A+, A, and A−);

• Whether a journal is included in the citation-based accounting journal rankings in Chan and Liano (2009) Table 2 (p. 66) (only 16 accounting journals are ranked);

• Whether a journal is included in the survey-based accounting journal rankings in Walker et al. (2010) Table 3 (p. 51) (we focus on only journals rated by top-25 doctoral accounting programs).

Columns (4) to (8) display the results of the above five criteria. We include a journal in our sample if the journal meets at least three of the five criteria. Hence, we exclude Accounting and Finance, Accounting Auditing and Accountability Journal, British Accounting Review, Critical Perspectives on Accounting, European Accounting Review, Financial Accountability and Management, International Journal of Accounting, Issues in Accounting Education, and Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Economics. The final sample has 20 accounting journals.

Journal	Inception year	ABDC rating	Chan et al. (2005)	Loh’s rating	Taiwan NSC ranking	Chan and Liano (2009)	Walker et al. (2010)	Remarks
(1)	(2)	(3)	(4)	(5)	(6)	(7)	(8)
Abacus*	1965	A	X	2A	A−	16
Accounting and Business Research*	1970	A	X	2B	A−
Accounting and Finance*	1960	A		2B				Excluded
Accounting Auditing and Accountability Journal*	1987	A						Excluded
Accounting Horizons	1987	A		2B	A	6	2
Accounting Review*	1926	A*	X	1A	A+	3	1
Accounting, Organizations and Society*	1976	A*	X	1B	A+	4	1
Auditing: A Journal of Practice and Theory*	1981	A	X	1B	A	7	2
Behavioral Research in Accounting*	1989	A	X	2A	A−		2
British Accounting Review*	1969	A		2B				Excluded
Contemporary Accounting Research*	1984	A*	X	1A	A+	5	1
Critical Perspectives on Accounting	1990	A		2B				Excluded
European Accounting Review*	1992	A		2B				Excluded
Financial Accountability and Management	1985	A						Excluded
International Journal of Accounting	1965	A		2B	A−			Excluded
Issues in Accounting Education*	1983	A		2B	A−			Excluded
Journal of Accounting and Economics*	1979	A*	X	1A	A+	2	1
Journal of Accounting and Public Policy*	1982	A	X	1B	A	15	2
Journal of Accounting, Auditing and Finance*	1977	A	X	1B	A	11	2
Journal of Accounting Literature*	1982	A	X	2A	A−	10
Journal of Accounting Research*	1963	A*	X	1A	A+	1	1
Journal of American Taxation Association*	1979	A	X		A	13	2
Journal of Business, Finance and Accounting*	1974	A	X	2A	A	17
Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Economics	2005	A			A−			Excluded
Journal of Management Accounting Research*	1989	A	X	2A		9	2
Management Accounting Research*	1990	A		2B	A−	14
National Tax Journal*	1916	A	X		A	18	2
Review of Accounting Studies*	1996	A*	X	1B	A+	8	1
Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting*	1991	B	X	2B	A−