Institutional Ties and Publications in Top Accounting Journals

Academic journals certify and disseminate scientific knowledge. However, institutional ties between journals and universities can lead to conflicts of interest that compromise peer review. I consider publication patterns in the “Top 3” accounting journals in light of the journals’ governance structures and institutional ties. The Accounting Review (TAR), governed by the American Accounting Association (AAA), has no university affiliations. Journal of Accounting and Economics (JAE) and Journal of Accounting Research (JAR) are private journals with longstanding editorial ties to specific universities: the University of Rochester, the University of Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology for JAE and the University of Chicago for JAR. For publications from 2000–2022, I find that journal-affiliated authors (current faculty and recent PhDs from journal-affiliated universities) publish disproportionately in their affiliate journal. Further analysis suggests that this pattern does not appear to be attributable primarily to authors’ journal submission preferences, particularly for JAR affiliates. In fact, JAR affiliates publish their least cited work in JAR (relative to TAR and JAE), and affiliate articles in JAR receive significantly fewer citations than articles in JAR by authors from top institutions unaffiliated with JAR. Results further suggest that institutional ties may be particularly impactful for pretenure PhD affiliates and for the publication of dissertations. The results are consistent with the idea that institutional ties may influence the publication process in accounting journals, particularly at JAR, where institutional affiliations are formalized and concentrated in one institution. This paper was accepted by Ranjani Krishnan, accounting. Supplemental Material: The online appendix and data files are available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2024.04553 .