Improving the review process

With the aim to improve the academic profile of the EAA annual congresses, the SSC has been implementing new changes during the last few years. These range from the requirement of full papers only to the introduction of discussants for papers of particular interest. The review process has also been improved. Not only has the SC gradually been increased up to 90 members, including the SSC members, but the scoring methodology has also been refined and included on this website (see below). Moreover, the submission categories have been gradually revised to obtain a clearer picture of the topics and research methods. In our view this will not only improve the review process but also the organisation of the sessions.
 

Submission categories

In order to increase the dialogue amongst various research perspectives, and to avoid the creation of dogmatic paradigms, the SSC has introduced a new submission procedure that captures both the topic and method of a submitted paper. In this way, sessions could be organised according to topics but each author/paper will carry a ‘key’ identifying the research method/perspective adopted. This has implied that some categories (e.g. Analytical/Modelling, History, Interdisciplinary/Critical Perspective, Market based) are now considered methodological rather than topical categories. This will facilitate the work of the SSC in preparing sessions and will make it possible to combine in a session papers in different ways (e.g. keeping homogeneity of methods or mixing them as they deal with the same topic). The result will hopefully be interesting as comparison of approaches is now possible.

Consequently authors are invited to submit papers to any of the categories indicated below:

A) Subject/Topic of the paper submitted:

AU = Auditing
Submissions in the area of auditing and assurance.

ED = Accounting Education
Submissions dealing with any educational aspects of accounting, for example related to professional accountants, students, and pupils, but also institutions of education.

FA = Financial Analysis
Submissions in the area of financial accounting which focus on the users; it uses a set of methods to extract information from financial statements and other sources information and relate it to value of equity and debt investment and to interests of other stakeholders.

FR = Financial Reporting
Submission in the area of financial accounting which focus on the preparers; it analyses the choices and methods concerning the preparation of financial statements, taking into account firm characteristics, accounting standards, as well as institutions.

GV = Accounting and Governance
Submissions which relate to the interface between corporate governance and accounting.

IS = Accounting and Information Systems
Submissions in the area of the interface between accounting, information technology and systems.

MA = Management Accounting
Submissions in the area of management accounting and control systems.

PS = Public Sector Accounting
Submissions on accounting in the public and voluntary sectors.

SE = Social and Environmental Accounting
Submissions dealing with all aspects of social and environmental accounting.

TX = Taxation
Submissions on the subject of taxation.


B) Methodology/Perspective of the paper submitted:

AM = Analytical/Modelling
Submissions which discuss the definitions of and relationships among concepts; economic modelling is often used.

CF = Case/Field Study
Submissions which utilise the case study method or conduct field study research through various methodologies (e.g. ethnographies).

EA = Empirical Archival
Submissions which involve the testing of a statistical hypothesis to answer the research question (s); a data base is normally used.

EX = Experimental
Submissions which utilise an experimental design to address the research question(s).

HI = History
Submissions which adopt an historical perspective, and investigate historical issues of accounting thought and practices.

IC = Interdisciplinary/Critical
Submissions that draw on more than one discipline, ideally exploring their interrelations, or that draw on any of the various strands of critical theory.

MB = Market Based
Submissions which examine the relation between financial statement and other information and capital markets, including equity and debt markets.

SU = Survey
Submissions which utilise a survey methodology to address the research question(s).

Types of sessions

Regarding the 2012 conference, there will three types of sessions:

1. Parallel Session with Discussant (PSD), where selected relevant papers will be individually discussed by experts in the area (2 papers in each session);
2. Parallel Session (PS), that will include 3 papers in a normal session; and,
3. Research Forum Session (RFS), where 5 less-developed papers will be briefly presented in each session.

The decision to be included in each of these sessions will be made by the SSC taking into account the scores obtained in the review process.

NEW !  As of this year’s congress (2012), if your paper is accepted for a PSD session, you are expected to be a discussant for another paper.

Submission rules

Authors who want to submit a paper must be EAA members in the year of the congress for which they submit. If you are not a member, you will be asked to subscribe for membership 2012 before being allowed to submit.

As a consolidated EAA policy, each individual is limited to one personal appearance on the programme as a presenting author. This policy precludes acceptance of papers for more than one presentation. In other words, an author can submit and present only one paper. However a presenter can always be a non-presenting co-author on additional papers.

Authors are invited to submit full papers. The deadline for the submission of papers is 1 December 2011, 23:59 GMT.

A full paper is a complete scholarly research report that could reasonably be submitted for publication in a public working paper data base such as SSRN.

Papers will be subject to a double-blind review process by the Scientific Committee. So please do NOT include neither a cover page with your submission, nor any type of information that can identify you (no name, no address, no e-mail address, no acknowledgments or thanks). Information typically provided on a cover page will be entered on the on-line submission form.

Papers can only be submitted electronically via this website (please see the page “submission” and follow the instructions on the on-line submission pages). Abstracts will be included in the congress book, so they should not exceed 1.500 characters.

Papers received by postal mail, fax or in writing will not be considered.

Papers should be submitted in English.

Confirmation of acceptance or rejection by the SSC will be given after 10 February 2012 and mailed to the corresponding e-mail address of the presenting author, together with instructions for PSD, PS or RF.

The presenters of an accepted paper must register as a participant for the congress before 28 February 2012.

Please take into account that once a paper is included in the programme, the author should present it the conference or officially notify the organizers of its withdrawal.

NEW !  As of this year’s congress (2012), by submitting, the authors will accept the release of their paper online.

Review instructions 

To 'anchor' the grading of the papers to be presented at the congress, the following assumption will be made: be ready for submission to a journal like European Accounting Review (EAR). If so they will score a 4 in the scoring system outlined below. As the 4 is the reference level we now give more information on what 4 would represent for papers submitted, but first keep in mind the definition of full papers provided above.

To achieve a 4, a full paper defined submitted should:

a) present a coherent argument,
b) address a topic of research interest and importance,
c) display awareness of previous work in the area,
d) outline a valid research approach,
e) include evidence and/or arguments which, although possibly incomplete, appear reliable, and
f ) indicate awareness of the work which may still be required.

Based on the 'anchor', the scoring system is:

6 → The paper has very good chances in the review process of a good accounting journal (e.g. EAR).
5 → The paper has good chances in the review process of a good accounting journal (e.g. EAR).
4 → The paper could reasonably be submitted to a journal like EAR.
3 → Not yet ready for submission.
2 → Represents initial work on a potentially viable project, but is not likely to be ready for submission for some time.
1 → The submitted work does not, as yet, provide evidence of a viable research project.

NEW !  As of this year’s congress (2012), the reviewers’ comments, when available, will be  systematically released to the authors. However, comments from the reviewers will not be compulsory and authors should not expect the same type of comments made when submitting to a journal.

In case you have questions, please contact Nicole Coopman, the EAA 2012 Paper Review Coordinator, via e-mail (submissions@eaa2012.org).