Accounting Forum

About Accounting Forum

Overview

Accounting Forum is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal published by Taylor & Francis Ltd. in the United Kingdom. In continuous publication since 1978, the journal has grown into a respected international outlet for accounting scholarship that bridges theory and practice. As stated on the journal's official Taylor & Francis Online page, Accounting Forum publishes "authoritative yet accessible articles which advance our knowledge of theory and practice in all areas of accounting and related subjects," and it explicitly welcomes papers that take an interdisciplinary approach. This positioning — rigorous scholarship written to be read by academics, practitioners, and students alike — has been a consistent hallmark of the journal for decades.

The journal's bibliographic identifiers are the print ISSN 0155-9982 and the online ISSN 1467-6303. It is published four times per year. According to SCImago Journal & Country Rank, Accounting Forum carries an SJR of 1.087 for 2025 and sits in the first quartile (Q1), with an h-index of 70 and Scopus coverage recorded from 2004 through 2026. Independent metrics aggregators report a Scopus-based impact score of approximately 4.82 and a CiteScore of around 5.4, figures that fluctuate year to year and should be verified against the current Journal Citation Reports and Scopus releases.

Accounting Forum is aimed at an unusually broad readership for an accounting journal. The publisher describes each issue as containing peer-reviewed research articles, a research notes section, and a comments section, and notes that the journal is "of equal interest to practitioners, academics, and students." This three-audience framing is reflected in the journal's editorial choices: articles are expected to be authoritative and theoretically grounded, yet written accessibly enough that a practicing accountant or an advanced student can follow the argument and take away something useful.

History and Development

Accounting Forum was founded in 1978, during a period when accounting academia was beginning to question the narrowness of mainstream financial accounting research and to open up to behavioral, organizational, and social perspectives. The journal's very name — a "forum" rather than a "review" or "journal of" — signaled its intended role as a meeting place for the intellectual exchange of academic research on topical issues and contemporary developments in accounting.

Over nearly five decades, the journal has published work spanning the full breadth of accounting: financial accounting, management accounting, auditing, taxation, accounting education, and the social and environmental dimensions of accounting. It has been particularly hospitable to interdisciplinary scholarship — papers that draw on sociology, psychology, economics, philosophy, and organizational theory to illuminate accounting phenomena. This openness has given the journal a distinctive identity within the accounting journals landscape, where many outlets are more methodologically or topically narrow.

The journal's editorial leadership has reflected its international orientation. In 2025, Joanne Tingey-Holyoak of Adelaide University was appointed Co-Editor-in-Chief, having previously served as an Associate Editor of the journal from 2021 to 2025. She serves alongside Aziza Laguecir, Professor of Management Control at SKEMA Business School (Université Côte d'Azur, France), who is also identified by her institution as Editor-in-Chief of Accounting Forum. Charles H. Cho, the Erivan K. Haub Chair in Business & Sustainability at the Schulich School of Business, York University, has also served as an editor of the journal. Earlier editorial teams included scholars such as Giovanna Michelon as Co-Editor. This rotation of leadership across institutions in Australia, France, Canada, and the UK mirrors the journal's genuinely international authorship and readership.

Aims and Scope

The official aims and scope statement published on Taylor & Francis Online defines the journal's remit as follows: Accounting Forum "publishes authoritative yet accessible articles which advance our knowledge of theory and practice in all areas of accounting and related subjects, and welcomes papers with an interdisciplinary approach in these areas." The journal provides "a forum for the intellectual exchange of academic research covering a range of topical issues and contemporary developments in accounting and accounting-related subjects."

Methodologically, the journal is pluralist. It "welcomes papers that use both qualitative and quantitative methods and provide a clear theoretical contribution beyond the boundaries of the specific context." This means that a purely descriptive case study, or a purely technical analysis with no theoretical contribution, is unlikely to fit; the editors look for work that speaks beyond its immediate empirical setting.

The journal's stated main areas of interest are:

• Accountability
• Accounting education
• Accounting information systems
• Accounting theory
• Auditing
• Ethics
• Financial accounting
• Governance
• Management accounting
• Social and environmental accounting
• Taxation

Each issue of the journal includes peer-reviewed articles, research notes, and a comments section — the latter providing a venue for scholarly debate and response, which reinforces the journal's "forum" identity.

Editorial Leadership

As of 2025, the journal's Co-Editors-in-Chief include Joanne Tingey-Holyoak (Adelaide University, Australia) and Aziza Laguecir (SKEMA Business School, France). Professor Laguecir's research focuses on management accounting and control systems, with particular attention to the public sector and to surveillance and control systems in digitized organizations, and she has published in leading accounting journals including the British Accounting Review, the Journal of Business Ethics, and Accounting Forum itself. Professor Tingey-Holyoak's research integrates biophysical and accounting data and frameworks to improve decision-making at individual and policy scales, and she previously held associate editor roles at several journals before her 2025 appointment.

Authors and readers should consult the journal's editorial board page on Taylor & Francis Online for the current full roster of associate editors and editorial board members, as these appointments change over time. The board is international in composition, consistent with the journal's global author base.

Peer Review Process

Accounting Forum operates a rigorous peer review process consistent with Taylor & Francis's standard publishing policies for its journals portfolio. Manuscripts submitted through the journal's online submission system are first screened by the editors for fit with the journal's aims and scope and for basic scholarly quality. Papers that pass this initial screening are sent out for evaluation by expert referees.

Like other Taylor & Francis journals, Accounting Forum follows the publisher's policies on publication ethics, including requirements around originality (manuscripts must not be under consideration elsewhere and must not have been published previously), disclosure of conflicts of interest, and appropriate attribution of sources. Authors are advised to read the journal's "Instructions for authors" page on Taylor & Francis Online before submitting, as it contains the current requirements on manuscript structure, referencing style, word limits, and figure preparation.

Indexing and Abstracting

Accounting Forum is indexed in Scopus, with coverage recorded from 2004 to the present. Scopus indexing means the journal's articles are included in one of the world's largest abstract and citation databases, which underpins the calculation of metrics such as CiteScore, SJR, and the h-index. Authors considering submission should verify the journal's current indexing in the Web of Science (including whether it is covered in the Social Sciences Citation Index or the Emerging Sources Citation Index), EBSCO, ProQuest, and other databases via the journal's Taylor & Francis page or the MIAR database, as indexing coverage can change.

Impact Metrics

All metrics below are drawn from third-party aggregators and should be verified against the primary sources (Journal Citation Reports, Scopus, SCImago) for the current year, as metrics are updated annually and differ in methodology:

• SJR (SCImago Journal Rank): 1.087 for 2025, ranked Q1 (source: SCImago Journal & Country Rank).
• h-index: 70 per SCImago; other aggregators report figures in the 55–66 range depending on the document set and time window used.
• CiteScore (Scopus): approximately 5.4 (source: Editage journal metrics page; verify against current Scopus).
• SNIP: approximately 1.54 (source: Editage).
• Scopus-based impact score: approximately 4.82 (source: Resurchify, based on Scopus data).

Readers should note that aggregators such as Resurchify, Editage, and Exaly compute their own "impact scores" from Scopus data; these are not the Clarivate Journal Impact Factor. For the official Journal Impact Factor, consult the Journal Citation Reports.

Publication Ethics

As a Taylor & Francis journal, Accounting Forum adheres to the publisher's ethics policies, which are aligned with the guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). These policies cover authorship criteria, plagiarism and duplicate publication, data fabrication and falsification, image manipulation, disclosure of funding sources and competing interests, and the handling of corrections and retractions. Taylor & Francis is a member of COPE, and its journals follow COPE flowcharts when ethical issues arise. Authors, reviewers, and editors are all expected to be familiar with these standards.

Open Access Policy

Accounting Forum is a hybrid journal. Authors can publish via the traditional subscription route at no charge, or they can choose Taylor & Francis's Open Select option to make their individual article open access on payment of an article publishing charge (APC). Some articles in the journal are published open access, as visible on the journal's Taylor & Francis Online page where open-access articles are badged. Authors should check the current APC on the publisher's open access pricing page, as charges vary by journal and are updated periodically. Taylor & Francis also offers green open access (self-archiving of accepted manuscripts in institutional repositories, subject to embargo periods) and participates in institutional open access agreements that may cover APCs for affiliated authors.

Submission Guidelines

Manuscripts are submitted through the Taylor & Francis online submission system linked from the journal's homepage (tandfonline.com/journals/racc20). Before submitting, authors should:

• Confirm the manuscript fits the journal's aims and scope and offers a clear theoretical contribution.
• Prepare the manuscript according to the journal's Instructions for Authors, including formatting, reference style, and any word or page limits.
• Ensure the work is original, not under review elsewhere, and properly attributes all sources.
• Disclose any funding and potential conflicts of interest.
• Consider whether to opt for open access via Open Select at acceptance.

Because submission requirements are updated from time to time, the Instructions for Authors page on Taylor & Francis Online is the authoritative source and should be consulted immediately before submission.

Readership and Significance

Accounting Forum occupies a distinctive niche: it is one of the relatively few accounting journals that explicitly courts practitioners and students alongside academics, and one of the few generalist accounting journals with a genuinely interdisciplinary mandate. For researchers working at the boundaries of accounting — with sustainability, ethics, education, governance, or organizational theory — it offers a reputable, internationally recognized outlet that values accessibility of writing. Its Q1 SJR ranking and multi-decade publication history make it a credible venue for scholars building a research profile, while its comments and research-notes sections provide faster, shorter formats for scholarly exchange.

Intellectual Identity: The Accessible Generalist

Within the crowded field of accounting journals, Accounting Forum occupies a distinctive position. Unlike highly specialized outlets devoted to a single method or subfield, it is a generalist journal — but a generalist journal with a point of view. Its insistence on accessibility means that authors must write for readers outside their immediate specialty; its insistence on theoretical contribution means that purely descriptive or purely technical work will not suffice. The result is a journal that rewards scholars who can connect their specific empirical setting to larger conversations about accountability, governance, ethics, or the social role of accounting.

This identity also explains the journal's hospitality to interdisciplinarity. Accounting research that draws on sociology, psychology, philosophy, or political science often struggles to find a home in mainstream finance-oriented accounting journals; Accounting Forum explicitly invites such work, provided it advances our understanding of accounting theory or practice. For early-career researchers working at disciplinary boundaries, this openness is a significant opportunity.

Current Research Frontiers

The journal's latest published articles illustrate the breadth of its current interests. Recent issues have featured research on dialogic approaches to sustainability accounting education and practice; the impact of green monetary policy on corporate environmental disclosure; the consequences of negative ESG media coverage for earnings management; longitudinal case-study evidence on how business intelligence fosters managers' trust in performance measurement systems; and textual and linguistic analyses of budget documents and legitimation strategies in local government budgeting. Taken together, these contributions show a journal actively engaged with sustainability, digitalization, public-sector accountability, and the behavioral dimensions of accounting — themes that sit at the center of contemporary accounting debate.

The presence of several open-access articles among the journal's most recent publications also indicates that authors are increasingly using the Open Select option to maximize the reach of their work, a trend consistent with funder mandates and institutional open access policies worldwide.

For Prospective Authors: Fit and Strategy

Authors considering Accounting Forum should ask themselves three questions. First, does the paper make a clear theoretical contribution that extends beyond its specific empirical context? The editors state this requirement explicitly, and it is the most common reason otherwise competent papers are turned away. Second, is the paper written accessibly? A manuscript dense with unexplained technical apparatus, or one that assumes deep familiarity with a narrow literature, will struggle — the journal wants work that a practitioner or a scholar from a neighboring discipline can follow. Third, does the paper engage a topical issue or contemporary development? The journal's "forum" identity means it values timeliness and relevance alongside rigor.

The research notes and comments sections offer additional routes into the journal. A research note can present a focused empirical finding or methodological innovation without the full apparatus of a major article; a comment can engage critically with previously published work. Both formats are peer-reviewed and both reach the journal's broad readership.

How to Access the Journal

Accounting Forum is available through Taylor & Francis Online, where current and archival content can be browsed by issue, and where open-access articles are freely available to all readers. Institutional subscribers access the journal through their library's Taylor & Francis package. Individual articles can be purchased directly from the publisher's site. Authors affiliated with institutions that hold Taylor & Francis open access agreements should check whether their APC would be covered before choosing the Open Select route.

A Note on Metrics

Readers encountering conflicting metric values for Accounting Forum across different websites should understand why discrepancies arise. SCImago, Scopus (CiteScore), Clarivate (Journal Impact Factor), and independent aggregators all use different document sets, citation windows, and update schedules. The SJR of 1.087 and h-index of 70 reported by SCImago, the CiteScore of approximately 5.4 from Scopus, and the impact scores computed by aggregators from Scopus data each tell a slightly different story about the same underlying citation record. For formal purposes — such as promotion dossiers or grant applications — always cite the metric from its primary source and specify the year of the release.

Taylor & Francis also maintains the journal's presence in major discovery services, so articles are findable through library search tools, Google Scholar, and disciplinary indexes. Researchers citing Accounting Forum articles should use the standard citation format with the journal's print ISSN 0155-9982 or online ISSN 1467-6303 as appropriate, and should verify volume, issue, and page details against the version of record on Taylor & Francis Online.

Journal at a Glance