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1. Introduction
Celebrating its 30th year of publishing, Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal (AAAJ) has become firmly established as one of the leading journals in interdisciplinary accounting research. This milestone is an appropriate time to reflect on the key articles that are at the foundation of AAAJ’s success, and to consider the characteristics of contemporary articles that are fast becoming the articles scholars will cite in the future. This paper presents a critical analysis of the articles published in AAAJ that have had the most impact on scholars, measured by citations, since the journal’s inception. Drawing on this analysis can help us gain insight into AAAJ’s impact – the way in which the paths taken by accounting scholars and researchers have shaped the interdisciplinary accounting project and the paths available for future accounting research in AAAJ and beyond. We measure impact using Google Scholar to identify total citations and citations per year (CPY). In total, we analyse 147 of the 917 scholarly articles published between 1988 and 2016 to ensure the sample is representative of the body of work that makes AAAJ one of the leading interdisciplinary accounting journals.
The first words in the first volume of AAAJ, written by its Editors, Guthrie and Parker (1988, p. 3) were:
Welcome to the inaugural issue of Accounting, Auditing & Accountability, an international research journal that will publish studies of accounting and auditing regarding concepts, practice and policy. We plan to encourage research which focuses on the interaction between the accounting and auditing disciplines and their regulatory, institutional, economic, political and social environments. Our journal is intended to deepen our understanding of the development, current and potential state of our discipline, both as a product of its environment and as a powerful influence which shapes its environment as well.
Reflecting in their recent commentary, Guthrie and Parker (2017, p. 3) wrote:
We now reflect on our first editorial. It contains important signposts as to the type of journal AAAJ has now become. For instance, the journal supports various methodological approaches, is international in nature, and publishes articles on a wide variety of subject areas. The Journal began very much as it has continued, with the four articles in the first...