Wayne Thomas, University of Oklahoma

Alessandro Ghio, ESCP

Accounting Horizons aims to bridge accounting academics and non-academics (e.g., practitioners, standard setters, and regulators) by publishing rigorous academic research and thought-provoking perspectives that are pertinent to the accounting profession. Most accounting research in the past few decades uses archival, experimental, or analytical methods, rather than other research methods, such as literature reviews, surveys, interviews, and field studies. Accounting Horizons recognizes that these other research methods have an important role to play in bridging the gap between academic research and accounting practice.

Literature review articles can inform academics about what knowledge has been discovered and where gaps exist. These articles can be particularly useful to non-academics who are interested in the given topic and seek insights from research. Literature review articles in Accounting Horizons should focus on specific topics relevant to practice and be written for both academics and non-academics who are interested in the topic, using plain language and avoiding jargon.

Surveys, interviews, and field studies allow researchers to gather input from non-academics on important accounting issues. This research can inform academics about what research questions are relevant to practice and what phenomena urgently need in-depth investigation. This research can also inform non-academics by providing evidence on issues that they deal with in practice. The journal welcomes research using positivist, interpretive, or critical paradigmatic lenses.

To encourage research articles using these other research methods and reduce authors' uncertainty regarding the outcomes of their research efforts, this call uses a two-stage review process. In the first stage, authors should submit a two-page research proposal including the proposed title, planned research method(s), a summary of motivation, the execution plan, the expected impact on academic literature and accounting practice, and a reference list. For qualitative methods, the execution plan should include a brief discussion of the intended use of theory or an explanation of why a descriptive approach without theory is more appropriate. Authors are allowed to submit a proposal for a study for which data have already been collected. The proposal will be evaluated by an editor with domain expertise, resulting in either an encouragement to submit the completed article or a rejection.

In the second stage, authors will be given six months to submit a completed article, with additional time available for data collection. The submission may include up to 30 pages of text and 40 pages in total. The submission will typically be assigned to the editor who evaluated the proposal in the first stage. The goal is to conditionally accept the first revision of the completed article, but acceptance is not guaranteed due to poor execution or failure to follow reasonable recommendations of the review team. However, no manuscript will be rejected in the second stage because of lack of contribution or relevance to practice.

Potential topics

• Literature review articles on topics relevant to accounting practice
• Survey research on important accounting issues
• Interview-based research gathering input from practitioners and non-academics
• Field studies in accounting contexts
• Qualitative research using positivist, interpretive, or critical paradigmatic lenses
• Research methods beyond traditional archival, experimental, and analytical approaches

Timeline

• December 31, 2026: Deadline for submitting research proposals. This is an open call that will continue accepting submissions until this date.
• February 18, 2027: Deadline for submitting completed article following first-stage approval of research proposal.

Academy of Management Perspectives (AMP) publishes papers that matter to managers. The journal seeks to realize the field's long-standing call for managerially relevant work. AMP papers must be managerially driven from the start, not theory-driven papers with managerial implications added as an afterthought. Papers rejected from theory-focused journals are not suitable for AMP unless they are fundamentally reoriented toward managerial relevance.

AMP papers must meet three core criteria: they must be RELEVANT, RIGOROUS, and READABLE. Relevant papers inform an issue of evident importance to managerial practice and/or policy. Rigorous papers engage in rigorous and original conceptual or empirical analysis. Readable papers concisely and clearly convey key ideas to a non-specialized audience. All three criteria must be satisfied.

While managerial relevance is the journal's most prominent characteristic, it does not come at the expense of rigor. AMP does not publish papers lacking rigorous original analysis. The analytical standards are the same as those of other elite journals. Opinions, overviews, descriptive arguments, and philosophical treatises are not within the journal's purview, even if they convey interesting perspectives on management. The managers who rely on AMP content need evidence, not conjecture.

AMP manuscripts differ in format from other Academy of Management journals to enhance accessibility for non-specialized audiences. The journal uses endnotes, places detailed analyses in supplements, and limits body pages to approximately 20 pages rather than the standard 30+. AMP papers favor plain language over jargon and make the practical case from the start rather than appending managerial implications at the end.

A typical AMP manuscript includes the following components: an engaging title and concise abstract of no more than 200 words; a concise introduction serving as an executive summary; a problem statement that clearly articulates the focal managerial issue and makes a convincing case for its importance; a review of relevant literature portraying baseline knowledge; identification of gaps in current understanding; rigorous conceptual or empirical analysis providing evidence to address the identified gaps; discussion of what has been learned including implementation steps and boundary conditions; and a brief conclusion restating the paper's contributions and significance.

Potential topics

• Papers that inform managerial practice and policy
• Work addressing issues of evident importance to managerial practice and/or policy
• Rigorous and original conceptual or empirical analysis
• Papers accessible to non-specialized audiences and practitioners
• Work grounded in evidence or robust conceptual frameworks
• Papers offering actionable insights for managers and policymakers

Timeline

• January 31, 2027: Submission deadline