Citation-Based Benchmarks and Individual Accounting Faculty Research Rankings by Topical Area and Methodology

This paper provides citation rankings and benchmarking data for individual accounting researchers disaggregated by topic and methodological area and studies which factors increase citation totals. Based on Google Scholar data from 7,113 articles published in respected accounting journals, we find that citation totals differ significantly based on accounting topic area (accounting information systems, audit, financial, managerial, tax, other) and methodology (analytical, archival, experimental, other), suggesting the need to separately benchmark authors who publish in these groups. We also find that authors who have a broad collaboration network, graduated from a school that started a journal, are topic specialists, or publish with topic specialists have higher numbers of citations. This data will benefit accounting researchers and those interested in evaluating them by providing objective information for producers of highly cited research in the sub disciplines of accounting