Analysing the relevance and utility of leading accounting research

The sub-prime banking crisis and credit crunch raised questions over whether the scope of
accounting research has been too narrow to serve the longer-term needs of business and
society. This paper assesses the extent to which the range of articles published by the
foremost accounting journals has been broad enough to address these needs. More
specifically, the research analyses the titles, abstracts and keywords of all articles published in the six principal accounting journals from 1999 to 2008. This analysis aims to ascertain the scope of research published in each journal, especially since the collapse of Enron highlighted a need for accounting research to examine accounting in a broader context. By doing so, the research highlights significant gaps in research coverage.