Is European Accounting Research Fairly Reflected in Academic Journals? An Investigation of Possible Non-Mainstream and Language Barrier Biases

45 Pages Posted: 8 Mar 2009

See all articles by Bernard Raffournier

Bernard Raffournier

University of Geneva

Alain Schatt

University of Lausanne, HEC-Lausanne

Date Written: March 7, 2009

Abstract

Recent research has revealed that most articles published in top US accounting journals come from institutions based in the US or a small number of other English-speaking countries (Jones and Roberts, 2005). It has also been shown that the research paradigm favoured by US journals is financial economics, with the result that articles on accounting history or social and behavioural accounting are very scarce. European journals exhibit a more diverse content. Nevertheless, as shown by some studies, British authors are the main contributors to these journals. As a consequence, the assertion has been made that the published literature is not perfectly representative of the diversity of European accounting research.

The aim of this study is to test the validity of this assertion by comparing the content of eighteen major academic journals in accounting over five years (2000-2004) with the set of papers presented at the EAA congress in 2003, 2004 and 2005. The results give some support to the assertion that the diversity of European accounting research is imperfectly reflected in academic journals. They also are consistent with the idea that non English-speaking scholars are at a competitive disadvantage in the race for publication in recognized periodicals.

Keywords: accounting research, accounting journals, publications, language

JEL Classification: M40

Suggested Citation

Raffournier, Bernard and Schatt, Alain, Is European Accounting Research Fairly Reflected in Academic Journals? An Investigation of Possible Non-Mainstream and Language Barrier Biases (March 7, 2009). European Accounting Review, Forthcoming, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1355084 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1355084

Bernard Raffournier (Contact Author)

University of Geneva ( email )

Switzerland

Alain Schatt

University of Lausanne, HEC-Lausanne ( email )

Unil Dorigny, Batiment Internef
Lausanne, 1015
Switzerland

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