IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/accted/v24y2015i3p187-207.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Impact of Journal Rankings on Australasian Accounting Education Scholarship - A Personal View

Author

Listed:
  • Nicholas McGuigan

Abstract

The higher education environment in which academics currently find themselves is one characterised by corporatisation and commodification. The pursuit of scholarly academic research is increasingly plagued by quantification, ranking pursuits, and what might be referred to as a 'publication' maximisation culture. This paper provides reflective insight into the impact felt of journal rankings on Australasian accounting education research. The paper challenges the short-termism and narrow focus currently adopted by many business faculty executives, who continue to use journal rankings as the sole measure of academic performance. The paper argues that this results in incentive schemes not too dissimilar to that recently found within the financial industry. The paper concludes that such a narrow approach to measurement should be abandoned in order to encourage creativity and innovation in business research that assists in solving business problems today and well into the future.

Suggested Citation

  • Nicholas McGuigan, 2015. "The Impact of Journal Rankings on Australasian Accounting Education Scholarship - A Personal View," Accounting Education, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(3), pages 187-207, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:accted:v:24:y:2015:i:3:p:187-207
    DOI: 10.1080/09639284.2015.1021261
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/09639284.2015.1021261
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/09639284.2015.1021261?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lee D. Parker & James Guthrie, 2012. "Accounting scholars and journals rating and benchmarking: Risking academic research quality," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing, vol. 26(1), pages 4-15, December.
    2. Anthony Hopwood, 2008. "Changing Pressures on the Research Process: On Trying to Research in an Age when Curiosity is not Enough," European Accounting Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(1), pages 87-96.
    3. Deryl Northcott & Simon Linacre, 2010. "Producing Spaces for Academic Discourse: The Impact of Research Assessment Exercises and Journal Quality Rankings," Australian Accounting Review, CPA Australia, vol. 20(1), pages 38-54, March.
    4. Scapens, Robert W., 2008. "Seeking the relevance of interpretive research: A contribution to the polyphonic debate," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 19(6), pages 915-919.
    5. Hines, Ruth D., 1991. "The FASB's conceptual framework, financial accounting and the maintenance of the social world," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 16(4), pages 313-331.
    6. Paul De Lange & Brendan O’Connell & M.R. Mathews & Alan Sangster, 2010. "The ERA: A Brave New World of Accountability for Australian University Accounting Schools," Australian Accounting Review, CPA Australia, vol. 20(1), pages 24-37, March.
    7. Imad Moosa, 2011. "The demise of the ARC journal ranking scheme: an ex post analysis of the accounting and finance journals," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 51(3), pages 809-836, September.
    8. Vanclay, Jerome K., 2011. "An evaluation of the Australian Research Council's journal ranking," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 5(2), pages 265-274.
    9. M.R. Mathews & Alan Sangster, 2009. "Exporting the RAE: adoption of similar practices in Australia and New Zealand," Asian Review of Accounting, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 17(2), pages 115-135, July.
    10. Marriott, Neil & Stoner, Greg & Fogarty, Tim & Sangster, Alan, 2014. "Publishing characteristics, geographic dispersion and research traditions of recent international accounting education research," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 46(3), pages 264-280.
    11. Simon Hussain, 2011. "Food for Thought on the ABS Academic Journal Quality Guide," Accounting Education, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(6), pages 545-559, June.
    12. Richard M. S. Wilson, 2012. "The Australian Issue," Accounting Education, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(4), pages 321-321, August.
    13. Timothy J. Fogarty, 2014. "A dream deferred: interdisciplinary accounting in the US," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 27(8), pages 1265-1270, October.
    14. Moizer, Peter, 2009. "Publishing in accounting journals: A fair game?," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 34(2), pages 285-304, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Duff, Angus & Hancock, Phil & Marriott, Neil, 2020. "The role and impact of professional accountancy associations on accounting education research: An international study," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 52(5).
    2. Hussain, Simon & Liu, Lana Yan Jun & Miller, Anthony D., 2020. "Accounting as a dichotomised discipline: An analysis of the source materials used in the construction of accounting articles," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    3. Tharapos, Meredith & Marriott, Neil, 2020. "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder: Research quality in accounting education," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 52(5).
    4. Apostolou, Barbara & Dorminey, Jack W. & Hassell, John M. & Rebele, James E., 2016. "Accounting education literature review (2015)," Journal of Accounting Education, Elsevier, vol. 35(C), pages 20-55.
    5. Arquero, José Luis & Jiménez Cardoso, Sergio Manuel & Laffarga Briones, Joaquina, 2016. "Utilidad percibida de la producción académica-contable. Opinión de los profesores universitarios y de los profesionales," Revista de Contabilidad - Spanish Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 19(2), pages 239-251.
    6. Bonnie Amelia Dean & Stephanie Perkiss & Milica Simic Misic & Karina Luzia, 2020. "Transforming accounting curricula to enhance integrative learning," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 60(3), pages 2301-2338, September.
    7. Rob Jones, 2017. "Enlightenment through engagement? The potential contribution of greater engagement between researchers and practitioners," Accounting Education, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 26(5-6), pages 414-430, November.
    8. Burns, Cathleen S. & Fischer, Mary L. & Latham, Claire Kamm & Matuszewski, Linda J. & Sage, Judith A., 2022. "Leveraging medical education resources to enhance instruction in accounting education," Journal of Accounting Education, Elsevier, vol. 60(C).
    9. Merridee l. Bujaki & Bruce J. Mcconomy, 2017. "Productivity in Top‐10 Academic Accounting Journals by Researchers at Canadian Universities at the Start of the 21st Century," Accounting Perspectives, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 16(4), pages 269-313, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Dixon, Keith, 2013. "Growth and dispersion of accounting research about New Zealand before and during a National Research Assessment Exercise: Five decades of academic journals bibliometrics," MPRA Paper 51100, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Humphrey, Christopher & Gendron, Yves, 2015. "What is going on? The sustainability of accounting academia," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 26(C), pages 47-66.
    3. Malsch, Bertrand & Tessier, Sophie, 2015. "Journal ranking effects on junior academics: Identity fragmentation and politicization," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 26(C), pages 84-98.
    4. Deryl Northcott & Simon Linacre, 2010. "Producing Spaces for Academic Discourse: The Impact of Research Assessment Exercises and Journal Quality Rankings," Australian Accounting Review, CPA Australia, vol. 20(1), pages 38-54, March.
    5. Simon Hussain & Lana Liu & Yue Wang & Lingyan Zuo, 2015. "Journal Rankings, Collaborative Research and Publication Strategies: Evidence from China," Accounting Education, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(3), pages 233-255, June.
    6. Argento, Daniela & van Helden, Jan, 2023. "Are public sector accounting researchers going through an identity shift due to the increasing importance of journal rankings?," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 96(C).
    7. Mingers, John & Yang, Liying, 2017. "Evaluating journal quality: A review of journal citation indicators and ranking in business and management," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 257(1), pages 323-337.
    8. Gendron, Yves & Rodrigue, Michelle, 2021. "On the centrality of peripheral research and the dangers of tight boundary gatekeeping," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    9. Alberto Quagli & Francesco Avallone & Paola Ramassa, 2016. "The Real Impact Factor and the Gap between Accounting Research and Practice," FINANCIAL REPORTING, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2016(1), pages 29-57.
    10. Lee D. Parker & James Guthrie & Simon Linacre, 2011. "The relationship between academic accounting research and professional practice," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 24(1), pages 5-14, January.
    11. Jerome K. Vanclay & Lutz Bornmann, 2012. "Metrics to evaluate research performance in academic institutions: a critique of ERA 2010 as applied in forestry and the indirect H2 index as a possible alternative," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 91(3), pages 751-771, June.
    12. Hussain, Simon & Liu, Lana Yan Jun & Miller, Anthony D., 2020. "Accounting as a dichotomised discipline: An analysis of the source materials used in the construction of accounting articles," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    13. Endenich, Christoph & Trapp, Rouven, 2018. "Signaling effects of scholarly profiles – The editorial teams of North American accounting association journals," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 4-23.
    14. Wilkinson, Brett R. & Durden, Chris H., 2015. "Inducing structural change in academic accounting research," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 26(C), pages 23-36.
    15. Gendron, Yves, 2015. "Accounting academia and the threat of the paying-off mentality," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 26(C), pages 168-176.
    16. Reilley, Jacob & Löhlein, Lukas, 2023. "Theorizing (and) the future of interdisciplinary accounting research," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 93(C).
    17. Gebreiter, Florian, 2022. "A profession in peril? University corporatization, performance measurement and the sustainability of accounting academia," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    18. Maria-Victoria Uribe-Bohorquez & Juan-Camilo Rivera-Ordóñez & Isabel-María García-Sánchez, 2023. "Gender disparities in accounting academia: analysis from the lens of publications," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 128(7), pages 3827-3865, July.
    19. Parker, Lee D., 2012. "Qualitative management accounting research: Assessing deliverables and relevance," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 23(1), pages 54-70.
    20. Pimentel, Erica & Cho, Charles & Bothello, Joel, 2022. "The blind spots of interdisciplinarity in addressing grand challenges," MPRA Paper 114562, University Library of Munich, Germany.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:accted:v:24:y:2015:i:3:p:187-207. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/RAED20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.