Editorial: Data science and financial information in the public sector—challenges for accounting and accountability

This editorial introduces the Public Money & Management (PMM) theme ‘Data science and financial information in the public sector—challenges for accounting and accountability’, which presents a three-dimensional framework that distinguishes between the producers of financial data, the users of that data, and the effects of data science on accountability. The contributions in this theme—including a comprehensive literature review, empirical analyses of municipal bond pricing and artificial intelligence (AI) auditing applications, debates on digital skills and the management of data supply—collectively address these three dimensions from diverse perspectives. The articles underscore both the potential of data science to improve efficiency, transparency and fraud detection and the attendant challenges of regulatory compliance, ethical governance and data management. This editorial synthesizes these insights and outlines future research avenues, emphasizing the importance of developing robust theoretical frameworks and interdisciplinary collaborations to harness digital transformation for enhanced public financial management.