The Influence of Accounting Journals

Abstract

We examine a citation-based structural influence measure for a sample of 41 accounting journals. We also determine the journals' span of influence in the accounting discipline. Next, based on observed citation patterns, we identify sub-areas in the accounting literature using both hard and soft partitioning clustering techniques. Finally, we explore journal influence in these sub-areas. Results confirm the composition of the top-four of journals in the accounting network. Journal of Accounting Research is the most influential accounting journal. While The Accounting Review and Journal of Accounting & Economics follow closely behind, the influence of Accounting, Organizations & Society is concentrated in only a couple of sub-areas and therefore more limited overall. Although sub-area influence scores are generally robust across clustering techniques, we show that they should be determined using a fuzzy procedure in a discipline like accounting that is characterized by a mixture of generally influential journals and specialized journals.

Keywords: journal quality, journal influence, accounting journals, citation analysis

JEL Classification: M40