Advances in Applied Accounting Research (AAAR) is an international, peer-reviewed, open-access scholarly journal dedicated to advancing theoretically grounded, methodologically rigorous, and practically relevant research addressing accounting-related problems in organizations and wider society. The journal provides an international scholarly platform for research that contributes to understanding accounting theories, practices, institutions, governance, financial reporting, managerial decision-making, sustainability, technological transformation, and related accounting phenomena.
AAAR recognizes that organizations and societies operate in environments characterized by rapid change, complexity, volatility, uncertainty, and ambiguity. The journal seeks to advance scholarly understanding of accounting-related developments and challenges while encouraging research that anticipates, examines, and responds to transformations in contemporary accounting environments.
The journal emphasizes that applied accounting research complements theoretical inquiry. AAAR encourages scholars in accounting, finance, governance, economics, management, organization studies, and law to contribute research that develops, tests, extends, integrates, or critically evaluates accounting-related knowledge. Research should demonstrate how theoretical understanding and evidence from professional practice can inform one another and generate meaningful scholarly and practical contributions.
Accounting-Centered Scope Principle: All scholarly areas identified below constitute recognized components of AAAR's accounting-related scope. Each area may independently establish manuscript relevance when the research demonstrates a substantive connection to accounting knowledge, practices, institutions, reporting, governance, financial decision-making, or accounting-related societal issues. Interdisciplinary contributions are welcome when their principal scholarly questions and findings remain meaningfully connected to accounting research.
AAAR welcomes contextualized applied accounting research with clear theoretical foundations, defensible methodologies, meaningful scholarly contributions, and carefully developed practical implications. The journal encourages research that connects academic knowledge with professional practice, advances field-driven theoretical understanding, and contributes to addressing contemporary challenges affecting organizations, financial institutions, policymakers, and wider society.
Financial Accounting and Reporting includes financial accounting principles, accounting recognition and measurement, financial statements, financial disclosure, financial reporting quality, accounting information, reporting practices, financial transparency, accounting judgment, and the relevance of financial information to organizational and stakeholder decision-making.
International Accounting Standards and Standard Setting includes international financial reporting standards, accounting standard setting, accounting regulation, financial reporting frameworks, accounting policy choices, financial reporting comparability, accounting harmonization, and the adoption, interpretation, implementation, and practical implications of accounting standards.
Accounting Information and Financial Accountability includes the preparation, communication, interpretation, and use of accounting information, organizational financial accountability, financial reporting practices, reporting transparency, and the relationship between accounting information and financial or institutional decision-making.
Management Accounting includes managerial accounting practices, cost accounting, budgeting, financial planning, management control, performance measurement, management reporting, organizational resource allocation, managerial decision-making, and the application of accounting information to organizational planning and performance evaluation.
Corporate Financial Management includes financial management practices, corporate financing decisions, investment decisions, capital structure, working capital management, financial planning, financial risk, financial performance, financial strategy, and accounting-related considerations in corporate financial decision-making.
Business and Shareholder Value includes business valuation, firm value, shareholder value, financial performance, corporate accountability, financial decision-making, and the relationships among accounting information, organizational performance, corporate financial management, and stakeholder interests.
Good Governance and Internal Control Structures includes corporate governance, organizational governance, governance mechanisms, internal control systems, financial oversight, accountability structures, risk management, governance transparency, and the relationships between governance arrangements and accounting or financial reporting outcomes.
Accounting and Organizational Governance includes the role of accounting information in organizational oversight, financial accountability, governance decision-making, management responsibility, stakeholder accountability, institutional control, and the development and evaluation of effective governance practices.
Governance, Financial Reporting and Stakeholder Interests includes the relationships among reporting practices, financial transparency, governance quality, shareholder interests, organizational responsibilities, and the application of accounting knowledge to strengthen institutional and corporate accountability.
Public-Sector Accounting includes governmental accounting, public financial management, public-sector financial reporting, accountability in public institutions, public resource management, financial transparency, public-sector performance measurement, and accounting practices in governmental and nonprofit organizations.
Accounting and Organisations includes accounting practices within organizations, organizational accounting systems, accounting and institutional arrangements, the use of accounting information in organizational processes, management control, organizational accountability, and the relationship between accounting practices and organizational behavior or decision-making.
Institutional and Organizational Accounting Contexts includes accounting-related practices, challenges, and transformations within private, public, nonprofit, and other institutional settings. Research may examine how organizational and institutional contexts influence accounting practices, financial information, accountability, and decision-making.
Professional Accounting Practice and the Academic Nexus includes professional accounting practices, accounting knowledge in professional settings, relationships between academic research and accounting practice, professional decision-making, accounting competencies, and the translation of accounting theories and research findings into practical applications.
Industry-Academia Collaboration includes rigorous scholarly research arising from engagement between academic researchers, accounting practitioners, financial institutions, organizations, and professional communities. AAAR particularly welcomes research that examines practical accounting problems while developing meaningful theoretical, methodological, or policy-relevant insights.
Applied Accounting Knowledge and Professional Relevance includes research that connects accounting concepts, analytical approaches, professional experiences, and institutional practices to improve understanding of accounting-related organizational and societal challenges.
Societal Aspects of Accounting includes the relationships between accounting practices and society, the social implications of financial information, public accountability, accounting-related institutional responsibilities, stakeholder interests, and the contribution of accounting knowledge to understanding wider societal problems.
Equality, Diversity and Accounting includes equality, diversity, inclusion, fairness, and related societal considerations in accounting practices, professional accounting environments, financial reporting, governance, organizational accountability, and accounting-related decision-making.
Social Innovation and Emerging Economies includes accounting-related dimensions of social innovation, institutional development, emerging economies, social and financial inclusion, responsible organizational practices, and the role of accounting knowledge in addressing economic and societal challenges.
Sustainability and ESG Accounting includes sustainability accounting, environmental accounting, social accounting, sustainability reporting, environmental, social and governance (ESG) disclosure, sustainability performance measurement, corporate responsibility, accounting-related sustainability governance, and the application of accounting information to sustainability-related organizational decisions.
Impact Investing and Accounting for Green Finance includes impact investing, sustainable investment, green finance, climate-related finance, financial accountability for sustainability initiatives, sustainability-related financial information, and the measurement, reporting, and evaluation of financial and non-financial outcomes associated with responsible investment.
Sustainability Accounting and Global Challenges includes accounting-related approaches to environmental and societal challenges, sustainable organizational practices, responsible financial decision-making, sustainability disclosure, and the contribution of accounting research to the Sustainable Development Goals and wider sustainable development priorities.
Digital Accounting and Accounting Information Systems includes accounting information systems, digital accounting practices, accounting information technologies, technology-enabled financial reporting, digital financial information, accounting data management, and the application of information systems to accounting processes and organizational decision-making.
Technological Innovation in Accounting includes digital transformation of accounting practices, accounting automation, artificial intelligence in accounting, digital reporting, accounting analytics, emerging technologies, and technological developments that influence accounting information, professional accounting practices, reporting, governance, or financial accountability.
Digital Transformation and Organizational Accounting includes research examining how technological developments reshape accounting systems, financial information, accounting-related management processes, organizational control, professional practices, and the capacity of organizations to respond to changing accounting environments.
Futures and the Financial World includes accounting-related perspectives on developments in financial institutions, financial practices, financial decision-making, financial systems, and emerging challenges affecting the contemporary financial environment.
Accounting and Financial Change includes research examining accounting-related responses to financial uncertainty, organizational transformation, emerging financial practices, changing economic environments, and developments affecting the production, interpretation, and use of accounting and financial information.
Contemporary Accounting Challenges includes research addressing new and evolving accounting-related problems in a volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous world. AAAR encourages theoretically grounded and evidence-based perspectives that contribute to understanding future accounting practices and their organizational or societal implications.
Methodological Innovations in Accounting Research includes the development, adaptation, evaluation, and application of quantitative, qualitative, mixed-method, conceptual, analytical, and other defensible scholarly approaches that advance understanding of accounting-related theories, evidence, practices, institutions, or problems.
Interdisciplinary, Multidisciplinary and Transdisciplinary Research includes research connecting accounting with finance, governance, economics, management, organization studies, law, and related fields. Contributions should establish a clear and substantive relationship with accounting research rather than relying on a merely incidental accounting context.
Theoretical and Applied Research Integration includes studies that examine accounting-related phenomena through theoretical development, empirical investigation, methodological innovation, critical scholarly evaluation, and practical application. AAAR welcomes research that strengthens connections between conceptual understanding, evidence, and accounting practice.
AAAR accepts manuscripts written in English under only two recognized manuscript types: Research Paper and Literature Review Paper.
Research Paper includes original empirical research using quantitative, qualitative, mixed-method, experimental, quasi-experimental, archival, longitudinal, cross-sectional, comparative, case-based, content-analytical, textual, behavioral, computational, accounting-analytical, or other defensible original-research designs. Research should establish an accounting-related scholarly problem and present evidence, analysis, findings, and conclusions consistent with the research procedures actually undertaken.
Literature Review Paper includes rigorous narrative, integrative, systematic, scoping, structured, bibliometric, meta-analytical, theory-oriented, concept-oriented, or other defensible literature-review designs. Reviews should employ transparent methods appropriate to the review design and provide meaningful scholarly synthesis, theoretical or conceptual insights, critical evaluation, methodological understanding, or clearly grounded future-research directions relevant to accounting research.
Manuscript-Type Principle: Research methodologies, analytical techniques, theoretical or conceptual contributions, and literature-review approaches do not constitute separate manuscript types. Conceptual Papers are not accepted as a separate manuscript category. Conceptual and theoretical contributions should be appropriately integrated into an eligible manuscript type and supported by a defensible research or review approach. Bibliometric and mapping-based reviews should provide substantive scholarly synthesis rather than descriptive mapping alone.
Methodological Integrity: Authors must accurately describe the research or literature-review design actually undertaken. Specialized methodological claims must be supported by the procedures genuinely conducted and the evidence available. All manuscripts must demonstrate scientific rigor, coherent scholarly argumentation, clear academic English, and compliance with AAAR's current manuscript requirements. The journal's original editorial criteria specify a manuscript length of around 7,000 words; authors should follow the applicable current submission guidelines.
AAAR welcomes scholarly work that generates meaningful empirical, theoretical, conceptual, methodological, professional, practical, institutional, policy-related, or literature-synthesis contributions within its recognized accounting-related scope. The journal particularly encourages research that demonstrates how academic knowledge and professional accounting practice can inform and strengthen one another.
Empirical, Theoretical and Conceptual Contributions include generating, testing, replicating, extending, integrating, refining, challenging, or critically evaluating accounting-related evidence, theories, concepts, relationships, research models, analytical frameworks, and professional or institutional practices.
Methodological and Literature-Synthesis Contributions include developing, adapting, applying, evaluating, or critically examining accounting research methodologies and systematically or critically synthesizing relevant scholarly literature to identify evidence patterns, theoretical debates, methodological challenges, knowledge gaps, and future research opportunities.
Professional, Practical, Policy and Societal Contributions include evidence-based implications for accounting professionals, organizations, managers, financial institutions, investors, regulators, policymakers, public institutions, professional communities, and wider society. Practical implications should be carefully derived from the research findings or scholarly synthesis and supported by appropriate theoretical reflection.
AAAR welcomes research investigating accounting-related phenomena in private, public, governmental, nonprofit, financial, professional, educational, institutional, and other relevant organizational settings. Research may examine accounting practices, financial reporting, governance, managerial accounting, professional activities, sustainability, technological developments, or accounting-related societal challenges.
Single-country, multi-country, local, regional, national, international, single-industry, single-company, and single-organization studies may be eligible when they establish a meaningful accounting-related scholarly problem and provide defensible theoretical, empirical, methodological, practical, professional, institutional, or policy-relevant insights.
International or multi-country data are not mandatory. Contextually grounded applied accounting research should explain how its findings, analytical interpretations, or literature synthesis contribute to broader scholarly understanding and relevant accounting practice rather than presenting exclusively descriptive organizational or operational information.
Key Journal Audiences: AAAR serves accounting scholars and researchers interested in practically relevant and theoretically grounded accounting research; academics and interdisciplinary scholars investigating accounting-related problems; professionals in accounting, finance, and financial services; organizational and institutional decision-makers; regulators and policymakers; and readers interested in accounting-informed approaches to organizational and societal challenges.
Manuscripts should clearly identify an accounting-related research or review problem, the relevant scholarly context, theoretical or conceptual foundation, research objectives, methodology or review methodology, evidence, analysis or synthesis, findings, interpretation, implications, and substantive contribution to accounting knowledge or practice. Relevance may be established through any recognized area of AAAR's accounting-centered scholarly scope.
Editorial Criteria: AAAR welcomes rigorous and well-structured scholarly research employing appropriate quantitative, qualitative, mixed-method, interdisciplinary, multidisciplinary, or transdisciplinary approaches. Manuscripts should demonstrate clear academic argumentation, methodological defensibility, appropriate contextualization, coherent scholarly presentation, sound English-language communication, and carefully derived theoretical and practical implications.
Out-of-Scope Research includes studies whose principal questions, theoretical foundations, analytical focus, and scholarly contributions do not relate substantively to accounting or the recognized accounting-related areas of AAAR. Research situated in economics, finance, management, law, technology, organizational studies, or other disciplines should demonstrate a meaningful accounting-related contribution rather than relying on an incidental or nominal connection to accounting.
Descriptive reports, consultancy-style accounts, and local operational descriptions that do not establish a scholarly problem, defensible analytical or review framework, and meaningful contribution to knowledge may also be considered unsuitable for publication. Contemporary or practically important subject matter alone does not replace the need for scientific rigor, theoretical reflection, appropriate evidence, and scholarly contribution.
Editorial Screening: Manuscripts that clearly fall outside AAAR's Aims & Scope, do not conform to one of the two recognized manuscript types, lack adequate scholarly contribution, or fail essential manuscript preparation, submission, or research-integrity requirements may be declined during initial editorial screening without external peer review.
Publication Eligibility: Alignment with the journal's scope does not guarantee acceptance or publication. Every manuscript remains subject to originality, research integrity, appropriate methodology or review methodology, scholarly quality, submission compliance, independent peer review, editorial evaluation, and applicable publication-ethics policies. Editorial decisions are based on scholarly merit and must remain independent of publication payments.
The current AAAR Aims & Scope framework is intended to guide the scholarly assessment of new manuscripts within the journal's recognized accounting-related fields. All areas identified in this framework form part of the journal's accounting-centered scholarly scope, with manuscript relevance assessed according to the substantive accounting-related contribution of the research.
Valid manuscripts, editorial decisions, previously published articles, volume and issue assignments, publication dates, bibliographic metadata, DOI records, and other historical scholarly records established under earlier journal policies remain part of AAAR's permanent scholarly record and are not retrospectively reclassified, removed, or altered merely to conform to the current framework.
Authors, editors, and reviewers should apply the current framework to new submissions while respecting valid editorial commitments, decisions, and publication records associated with earlier manuscripts. The implementation of updated editorial or scope requirements does not invalidate legitimate historical publication records.
Prospective authors should consult the current manuscript requirements, manuscript template, applicable submission guidelines, peer-review requirements, publication ethics, Article Processing Charge policy, and other relevant journal information before submitting their work.