Journal profile · BUSINESS, FINANCE
Journal of Accounting Research
ISSN 0021-8456 · eISSN 1475-679X · Wiley-Blackwell
Journal of Accounting Research: CAS Zone 1 · Management (2025 upgraded edition, Top journal); impact factor 10.29; hybrid open access; APC about USD 4,420; median 703 days to acceptance (63 articles, last 24 months); acceptance rate 13% (journal website); 79 articles in 2025; indexed in SSCI and Scopus.
Scope
Aims, scope and focus
Journal of Accounting Research is published by Wiley-Blackwell and is in Zone 1 of Management in the CAS Journal Ranking (2025 upgraded edition, Top journal). By OpenAlex counts of its recent articles, its largest topics are Auditing, Earnings Management, Governance, Corporate Finance and Governance and Financial Markets and Investment Strategies, together about 53.4% of its articles. Its main subfields are Accounting. (generated from OpenAlex topic counts and CAS ranking data)
The Journal of Accounting Research is a general-interest accounting journal. It publishes original research in all areas of accounting and related fields that utilizes tools from basic disciplines such as economics, statistics, psychology, and sociology. This research typically uses analytical, empirical archival, experimental, and field study methods and addresses economic questions, external and internal, in accounting, auditing, disclosure, financial reporting, taxation, and information as well as related fields such as corporate finance, investments, capital markets, law, contracting, and information economics. The journal publishes four regular issues and one conference issue each year. The conference issue contains papers from the annual accounting research conference held at the University of Chicago. Topics published include: The impact of financial reporting and disclosure on stock prices; The economics of auditing, enforcement and audit oversight; The use of accounting information in contracting in debt, labor, supply, and other markets; The role of accounting in compensation and in corporate governance; The role of managerial accounting on internal decision making such as budgeting, costing, and transfer pricing; The real effects of financial reporting and disclosure (e.g. on firm behavior); The economics of regulation of financial reporting and disclosure, including bank regulation; International differences in financial reporting and the role of reporting standards in international capital markets; The political economy of standard-setting; The use of accounting information in public finance and macroeconomic statistics; The impact of tax regulation on transaction structuring; The role of transparency in markets and society; Corporate Social Responsibillity
From the journal's Aims & Scope
Research area (LetPub): BUSINESS, FINANCE
Main research topics OpenAlex counts of recent articles; shares are approximate
- Auditing, Earnings Management, GovernanceBusiness, Management and Accounting27.2%
- Corporate Finance and GovernanceBusiness, Management and Accounting14%
- Financial Markets and Investment StrategiesEconomics, Econometrics and Finance12.3%
- Financial Reporting and Valuation ResearchBusiness, Management and Accounting11.7%
- Accounting and Organizational ManagementBusiness, Management and Accounting3.7%
- Corporate Taxation and AvoidanceBusiness, Management and Accounting3.2%
- Auction Theory and ApplicationsDecision Sciences2.8%
- Decision-Making and Behavioral EconomicsDecision Sciences2.6%
Rankings & indexing
CAS ranking and database indexing
CAS Journal Ranking
CAS Journal Ranking, upgraded edition (March 2025)Management Zone 1
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Management | Zone 1 |
| Minor | Business, Finance | Zone 1 |
Top journal: yesReview journal: no
CAS Xinrui Journal Ranking (March 2026)Management Zone 1
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Management | Zone 1 |
| Minor | Business, Finance | Zone 1 |
Top journal: yesReview journal: not marked
CAS Journal Ranking, previous upgraded edition (December 2023)Management Zone 2
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Management | Zone 2 |
| Minor | Business, Finance | Zone 1 |
Top journal: noReview journal: no
Database indexing
SSCIScopusLetPub
International journal early-warning lists: not listed in any editionLetPub
Indexing the journal's website claims
EconLitCurrent ContentsPublisher website
Other: EBSCO, ProQuest, RePEc
As the journal's website lists them, not checked against each database; for Web of Science editions the records above apply.
Editions, and major and minor categories, are shown separately and never merged into one zone; check which edition your institution uses before you submit or report.
Metrics
Impact metrics and publication volume
Impact
- Impact factor
- 10.29LetPub ·
- Impact factor (publisher)
- 10.4Publisher website ·
- Impact factor (publisher) 2025
- 10.4Publisher website ·
- CiteScore 2026-06
- 13.4LetPub ·
- CiteScore (publisher)
- 13.4Publisher website ·
- CiteScore (publisher) 2025
- 13.4Publisher website ·
- SJR 2026-06
- 9.77LetPub ·
- SNIP 2026-06
- 4.47LetPub ·
- h-index
- 314OpenAlex ·
- i10-index
- 1,881OpenAlex ·
- 2-year mean citedness
- 11.61OpenAlex ·
- Self-citation rate
- 2.9%LetPub ·
- Share of gold OA articles
- 36.42%LetPub ·
Volume
- Articles per year
- 57LetPub ·
- Articles per year (publisher) 2025
- 57Publisher website ·
- Downloads per year (publisher) 2025
- 822,338Publisher website ·
Articles by year OpenAlex count · 2,815 in total · the current year is incomplete
| Year | Articles | Open access | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 55 | 30 | 142 |
| 2025 | 79 | 50 | 315 |
| 2024 | 71 | 51 | 1,923 |
| 2023 | 61 | 42 | 2,138 |
| 2022 | 54 | 30 | 1,960 |
| 2021 | 80 | 32 | 3,683 |
Sources count differently and were observed at different times, so each source's own value is kept; "publisher" marks figures from the journal's website.
Review & acceptance
Review time and acceptance
Review time from article dates manuscript dates registered with Crossref · to
703 daysMedian, submission to acceptance · P25–P75 476 days – 944 days
- Acceptance to online
- median 73 days (65 articles)
- Submission to online
- median 765 days
- Sample
- 63 articles with submission and acceptance dates (142 in the window); the latest was accepted on
Only articles that were accepted and published are counted, not the time spent on rejected manuscripts, so this usually runs longer than a publisher's "time to first decision".
Other sources
- Acceptance rate (publisher)
- 13%Publisher website ·
- Acceptance rate (publisher) 2025
- 13%Publisher website ·
- Submission to first decision
- 54 daysPublisher website ·
- Submission to first decision 2025
- 54 daysPublisher website ·
- Submission to acceptance 2025
- 711 daysPublisher website ·
- Acceptance to publication 2025
- 93 daysPublisher website ·
- Peer review
- Double anonymous peer reviewPublisher website
Community reports come from authors' own submissions (confidence 0.5) and are not a promise from the journal; for publisher figures, the journal's own definitions apply.
Fees & open access
APC and open-access policy
Hybrid open accessLetPub
A subscription journal in which authors can pay to publish their article open access.
| Source | APC | Fee waiver | License | Observed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| OpenAlex | USD 4,420 / EUR 2,660 / GBP 2,300 | — | — | |
| Publisher website | Yes, amount not published | — | — |
A hybrid journal charges the APC only when the author chooses open access; publishing under the subscription model is usually free.
Other charges and waivers (author guidelines)
- Submission fee
- USD 750
The journal's website is authoritative for fees; sources were observed at different times and each keeps its own value, without averaging.
Submission
Article types and submission policies (journal website)
What to prepare2 items from the author guidelines
- Cover letter
- Required
- Not considered
- resubmission of previously rejected papers
Article types accepted3
- registered reportsJAR distinguishes among the following three types of submissions: (i) Regular Manuscripts with original research content; (ii) Surveys or Methodological Contrib…Length not stated
- regular manuscripts with original research contentJAR distinguishes among the following three types of submissions: (i) Regular Manuscripts with original research content; (ii) Surveys or Methodological Contrib…Length not stated
- surveys or methodological contributionsJAR distinguishes among the following three types of submissions: (i) Regular Manuscripts with original research content; (ii) Surveys or Methodological Contrib…Length not stated
Policy excerpts from the journal's websiteAuthorship, Conflicts of interest, Data availability, Publication ethics, License & copyright, Open access, Peer review, Preprints
- Authorship Authorship
Restrictions on the Number of Submissions: at most four new papers over a rolling two-year period per author (or coauthors). Model summary
All listed authors should have contributed to the manuscript substantially and have agreed to the final submitted version. Review Wiley’s editorial standards and scroll down for a description of authorship criteria.
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Conflicts of interest Conflicts of Interest (Authors)
JAR and its publisher Wiley require that all authors disclose any potential sources of conflict of interest. Any interest or relationship, financial or otherwise, which might be perceived as influencing an author’s objectivity, is considered a potential source of conflict of interest. These sources must be disclosed when directly relevant or indirectly related to the analyses and conclusions that …
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Data availability
Data and Code Sharing Policy: authors must fully describe all data used in empirical analyses. Model summary
JAR expects authors to fully describe all data used in their empirical analyses as well as how they process and analyze the data to generate published results.
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Publication ethics Misconduct Allegations
Wiley as the publisher of JAR, is a member of the Committee on Publications Ethics (COPE). For more information on COPE see: https://publicationethics.org.
Source ↗Publisher website ·- License & copyright Copyright & Licensing
Authors may choose to publish under the terms of the journal’s standard copyright agreement, or Open Access under the terms of a Creative Commons License.
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Open access Open Access
This journal is a subscription journal that offers an Open Access option. Authors will have the option to make their article open access after acceptance, which will be subject to an APC unless a waiver applies. Read more about APCs here.
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Peer review Assignment of Manuscripts and Peer Review
Resubmission: revise and resubmit decisions must be resubmitted within 12 months. Model summary
JAR operates a double-anonymized peer review policy. We assign regular and conference manuscripts to senior editors based on a rotation scheme following the order in which manuscripts are received by JAR, regardless of the topic or methods used in the manuscripts. However, the assignment can deviate from this scheme when a senior editor faces a conflict of interest as described below. In addition,…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Preprints
Pre-Registration required for studies generating their own data (experimental, survey). Model summary
To be considered for publication at JAR, authors of studies that generate their own data are required to pre-register their study before data collection. Studies falling under this classification include those that generate data through experimental methods – both laboratory and field work – as well as those that generate data via survey responses.
Source ↗Publisher website ·
Excerpts are quoted from the journal's website; "model summary" lines are written by Workers AI and checked against the text. The journal's website is authoritative.
Profile
Publication details and official links
- Publisher
- Wiley-Blackwell
- ISSN
- 0021-8456
- Electronic ISSN
- 1475-679X
- Latest issue on the website
- Volume 64, Issue 4 (September 2026)
- Official links
- Journal homepage ↗OpenAlex
- Submission system ↗Publisher website
FAQ
Frequently asked questions about Journal of Accounting Research
What CAS zone is Journal of Accounting Research in?
In the 2025 upgraded edition of the CAS Journal Ranking, Journal of Accounting Research is in Zone 1 of Management, and in Zone 1 of the minor category Business, Finance; it is a Top journal. In the 2026 Xinrui edition it is in Zone 1 of Management. Zones from different editions, and from major and minor categories, are not interchangeable.
What is the impact factor of Journal of Accounting Research?
The latest impact factor listed by LetPub is 10.29; CiteScore 13.4, h-index 314.
How long does peer review take at Journal of Accounting Research?
Based on the dates recorded on 63 articles published between October 2024 and October 2026 (the last 24 months), the median time from submission to acceptance is 703 days (interquartile range 476–944 days); the journal's website gives an acceptance rate of 13% (2025). Article statistics cover accepted papers only, publisher figures follow the journal's own definitions, and community reports come from authors' own submissions; none is a promise from the journal.
Which databases index Journal of Accounting Research?
According to LetPub and DOAJ records, Journal of Accounting Research is indexed in SSCI and Scopus. The journal's website also lists EconLit and Current Contents; that list has not been checked against each database.
Is Journal of Accounting Research open access, and what is the APC?
Journal of Accounting Research is a hybrid journal. For open-access publication: APC about USD 4,420.
Sources and updates
The facts on this page come from LetPub, Publisher website, OpenAlex; every figure is tagged with its source and the date it was observed, and conflicting values are kept per source. LetPub source page: view ↗ (archived 2026-08-25). Last updated: .