text: the accounting review the accounting review is a bimonthly peer - reviewed academic journal published by the american accounting association ( aaa ) that covers accounting with a scope encompassing any accounting - related subject and any research accounting review is one of the oldest accounting journals , and recent studies considered it to be one of the leading academic journals in accounting . the accounting review was established in 1926 . in its early decades , the journal tended to publish articles that would be of interest to accounting practitioners , but over time it shifted towards a preference for quantitative model building and mathematical rigor . in the 1980s the aaa began to publish two other journals , issues in accounting education and accounting horizons , that were more relevant to accounting educators and accounting practitioners respectively , to allow the accounting review to focus more heavily on quantitative articles . overview and history the accounting review is a bimonthly peer - reviewed academic journal covering accounting , and is the flagship journal of the american accounting association . its current senior editor is mark l. ( university of southern california ) . the journal 's scope encompasses any accounting - related subject and any research methodology : as of 2010 the proportions of papers accepted for publication across subject areas and research methods was very similar to the proportion of papers received for review . submissions to the accounting review are reviewed by editorial board members and ad hoc reviewers . in 2009 , the journal received over 500 new submissions a year , and about 9 % of the decision letters sent to authors were acceptances or conditional acceptances . establishment to 1960s the accounting review , launched in 1926 by william andrew paton , is one of the oldest academic journals in accounting . the american association of university instructors of accounting , which later became the american accounting association , originally proposed that the association publish a quarterly journal of , but the proposal did not see fruition , and the accounting review was subsequently born . paton served as editor and production manager in the journal 's first three years . in the first few decades following the journal 's establishment , leading authors in the accounting review tended to write articles that would be of interest to accounting practitioners . the journal published articles that focused on accounting education and issues related to particular industries and trade groups , with many articles using anecdotal evidence and hypothetical illustrations . the longest - serving editor during this period was eric kohler , an accounting practitioner ; kohler served as editor from 1928 to 1942 . from the 1940s to the 1960s , the accounting review published articles of greater diversity , and leading authors during this period tended to have less practical accounting experience and more formal education . during this period , the three individuals that accounted for most of the editorial duties of the journal were a. c. littleton ( 1944 - 1947 ) , frank smith ( 1950 - 1959 ) and robert ( 1960 - 1962 ) , all of whom either had practical accounting experience , or were leading authors prior to 1945 , when the journal was oriented towards the accounting practice . 1960s to present in the 1960s , the journal shifted towards a preference for quantitative model building including econometric models and time series models , and accepted more articles by non - accountants who contributed ideas from other disciplines in solving accounting - related problems . since the late 1970s , accounting professors have opined that the journal was sacrificing relevance for mathematical rigor , and by 1982 , accounting researchers realized that mathematical analysis and empirical research were a necessary condition for articles to be accepted . in the 1980s , the aaa began to publish two other journals , issues in accounting education and accounting horizons . issues in accounting education , first published in 1983 , was created to better serve accounting educators , while accounting horizons , first published in 1987 , focused more on issues facing accounting practitioners . this permitted the journal " to focus more heavily on quantitative papers that became increasingly difficult for practitioners and many teachers of accounting to comprehend " . between the 1980s and the 2000s , with the rise of databases such as and edgar and software such as sas , articles became mathematically more rigorous with increasingly sophisticated statistical analyses , and accounting practitioners comprised a decreasing proportion of authors in the journal . impact according to the journal citation reports , the journal had a 2012 impact factor of 2 . 319 , ranking it 6th out of 89 journals in the category " business , finance " . recent studies on accounting research and on doctoral programs in accounting considered the accounting review to be one of six leading accounting journals , and it is also one of the journals used by the financial times to compile its business school research rank . and indexing the journal is abstracted and indexed in the social sciences citation index , current contents / social & behavioral sciences , and scopus .