Accounting History
Unique attributes
As a major international research journal, Accounting History serves to advance an understanding of the interaction of accounting and its socio-economic and political environments within historical contexts. It promotes the study of accounting as a social practice as well as a technical practice and encourages the identification of the impacts of accounting and accounting change on organisational and social functioning and development. Therefore, the use of an array of theoretical perspectives drawn from relevant disciplines such as sociology, economics and political theory is encouraged in conducting critical and interpretive studies of accounting's past. Papers accepted for publication are subject to double-blind review to ensure academic rigour and robustness and to ensure integrity.
Topics
Papers that are suitable for publication in Accounting History span a wide range of topics and periods, and a variety of methodological approaches, including biography, prosopography, institutional history, public sector accounting history, business history through accounting records, comparative international accounting history, as well as innovative research methods. Such studies may involve commercial and public institutions as well as social institutions of any genre, including the family home, charities and religious institutions. Studies set firmly in the archive, comprising written or oral sources, and that span both time and space are particularly encouraged. Thematic special issues are regularly published in order to encourage innovative and relevant research in underdeveloped fields of enquiry or within emerging or re-emerging topics in contemporary accounting.
Key benefits
The broad scope and strong international focus of Accounting History makes it relevant to the accounting profession internationally, as well as a contributor to informing research, public policy setting and regulation, and to augmenting knowledge in other fields such as business, management, finance and economic history. Appreciated internationally as a leading journal in its field, Accounting History continues to provide historical perspectives on current issues and may inform or guide contemporary and future decision makers on accounting, organisational and social policy and associated regulatory developments.
Electronic Access:
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This journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE)
Accounting History is an international peer-reviewed journal that aims to publish high-quality historical papers. This includes explorations of the advent and development of accounting bodies, conventions, ideas, practices and rules as well as the individuals and the local, time-specific environmental factors that shaped accounting in its social, organisational or technical contexts. The method(s) and/or theoretical framework(s) used should be clearly articulated.
This journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE)
| Carolyn Cordery | Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand |
| Carolyn Fowler | Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand |
| Laura Maran | RMIT University, Australia |
| Grant Samkin | University of South Africa, South Africa |
| Nicholas (Nick) Davis | Charles Sturt University, Australia |
| Umesh Sharma | University of Waikato, New Zealand |
| Rob Vosslamber | University of Canterbury, New Zealand |
| Anna Burnett-Howard | Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand |
| Ingrid Jeacle | University of Edinburgh, UK |
| Alessandro Lai | Università degli Studi di Verona, Italy |
| Christopher J. Napier | Royal Holloway, University of London, UK |
| Lee D. Parker | University of Glasgow, UK |
| Grietjie Verhoef | University of Johannesburg, South Africa |
| Stephen P. Walker | University of Edinburgh, UK |
| Marcia Annisette | York University, Canada |
| Valerio Antonelli | Università degli Studi di Salerno, Italy |
| C. Richard Baker | Adelphi University, USA |
| Juan Baños Sánchez-Matamoros | Universidad Pablo de Olavide de Sevilla, Spain |
| Federico Barnabè | Università degli Studi di Siena, Italy |
| Luca Bartocci | Università degli studi di Perugia, Italy |
| Didier Bensadon | Université Paris-Dauphine, France |
| Michele Bigoni | University of Kent, UK |
| Merridee Bujaki | Carleton University, Canada |
| Kees Camfferman | Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Netherlands |
| Salvador Carmona | IE University, Spain |
| Nieves Carrera | IE University, Spain |
| Roy Chandler | Cardiff University, UK |
| Deirdre Collier | Fairleigh Dickinson University, USA |
| Corinne Cortese | University of Wollongong, Australia |
| Shanta Davie | Newcastle University, UK |
| Stephanie Decker | University of Birmingham, UK |
| Tiziana Di Cimbrini | Università degli Studi di Teramo, Italy |
| Michael Doron | California State University Northridge, USA |
| Maria C. Dyball | University of Sydney, Australia |
| John Richard Edwards | Cardiff University, UK |
| Lisa Evans | University of Stirling, UK |
| Christine Fournes | Ecole de Management de Normandie, France |
| Elena Giovannoni | Royal Holloway University of London, UK |
| Delfina Gomes | Universidade do Minho, Portugal |
| Abdel Halabi | Federation University, Australia |
| Theresa A. Hammond | San Francisco State University, USA |
| Fernando Gutierrez-Hidalgo | Universidad Pablo de Olavide de Sevilla, Spain |
| Sebastian Hoffmann | HHL Leipzig Graduate School of Management, Germany |
| Jane Hronsky | University of Melbourne, Australia |
| Kirsten W. Kininmonth | University of Glasgow, UK |
| Sriyalatha Kumarasinghe | University of Otago, New Zealand |
| Carlos Larrinaga | Universidad de Burgos, Spain |
| Giulia Leoni | Università degli Studi di Genova, Italy |
| Ellen J. Lippman | University of Portland, USA |
| Wei Lu | Monash University, Australia |
| Marta Macias | Universidas Carlos III de Madrid, Spain |
| Karen McBride | University of Portsmouth, UK |
| Frances M. Miley | University of Sussex, UK |
| Lee C. Moerman | University of Wollongong, Australia |
| Sara Moggi | Università degli Studi di Verona, Italy |
| Anil Narayan | Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand |
| Masayoshi Noguchi | Tokyo Metropolitan University, Japan |
| Brendan O'Connell | RMIT University, Australia |
| Catriona Paisey | University of Strathclyde, UK |
| Martin Persson | University of Illinois, USA |
| Brad Potter | University of Melbourne, Australia |
| Martin Quinn | Queens University Belfast, UK |
| Andrew Read | University of Sussex, UK |
| Morina Rennie | University of Regina, Canada |
| Angelo Riccaboni | Università degli Studi di Siena, Italy |
| Janette Rutterford | The Open University Business School, UK |
| Raluca Sandu | SKEMA Business School, France |
| Alan Sangster | University of Aberdeen, UK |
| Massimo Sargiacomo | Universita degli Studi G. d'Annunzio di Chieti-Pescara, Italy |
| Stefania Servalli | Università degli Studi di Bergamo, Italy |
| Suki Sian | Queen Mary, University of London, UK |
| Riccardo Stacchezzini | Università degli Studi di Verona, Italy |
| Anna Szychta | University of Lodz, Poland |
| Thomas N. Tyson | St John Fisher College, USA |
| Sandra van der Laan | University of Sydney, Australia |
| Eagle Zhang | University of Sydney, Australia |
| Henri Zimnovitch | Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers, France |
Manuscript Submission Guidelines: Accounting History
This Journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics
Please read the guidelines below then visit the Journal’s submission site http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/ach to upload your manuscript. Please note that manuscripts not conforming to these guidelines may be returned.
Only manuscripts of sufficient quality that meet the aims and scope of Accounting History will be reviewed.
There are no fees payable to submit or publish in this Journal. Open Access options are available - see section 3.3 below.
As part of the submission process you will be required to warrant that you are submitting your original work, that you have the rights in the work, and that you have obtained and can supply all necessary permissions for the reproduction of any copyright works not owned by you, that you are submitting the work for first publication in the Journal and that it is not being considered for publication elsewhere and has not already been published elsewhere.
Please see our guidelines on prior publication and note that Accounting History may accept submissions of papers that have been posted on pre-print servers; please alert the Editorial Office when submitting (contact details are at the end of these guidelines) and include the DOI for the preprint in the designated field in the manuscript submission system. Authors should not post an updated version of their paper on the preprint server while it is being peer reviewed for possible publication in the journal. If the article is accepted for publication, the author may re-use their work according to the journal's author archiving policy.
If your paper is accepted, you must include a link on your preprint to the final version of your paper.
If you have any questions about publishing with Sage, please visit the Sage Journal Solutions Portal
- What do we publish?
1.1 Aims & Scope
1.2 Article types
1.3 Writing your paper - Editorial policies
2.1 Peer review policy
2.2 Authorship
2.3 Acknowledgements
2.4 Declaration of conflicting interests - Publishing policies
3.1 Publication ethics
3.2 Contributor's publishing agreement
3.3 Open access and author archiving - Preparing your manuscript
4.1 Formatting
4.2 Artwork, figures and other graphics
4.3 Supplemental material
4.4 Reference style
4.5 English language editing services
4.6 Research data - Submitting your manuscript
5.1 ORCID
5.2 Information required for completing your submission
5.3 Permissions - On acceptance and publication
6.1 Sage Production
6.2 Online First publication
6.3 Access to your published article
6.4 Promoting your article - Further information
1. What do we publish?
1.1 Aims & Scope
Before submitting your manuscript to Accounting History, please ensure you have read the Aims & Scope.
1.2 Article Types
Papers could be concerned with exploring the advent and development of accounting bodies, conventions, ideas, practices and rules. They should attempt to identify the individuals and also the local, time-specific environmental factors which affected accounting, and should endeavour to assess the impacts of accounting and accounting change on organizational and social functioning and development. Accounting History promotes the study of accounting as a social practice as well as a technical practice. In such studies, the method(s) and/or theoretical framework(s) used should be clearly articulated. Authors should also identify, to the extent possible, the contemporary relevance and implications of their research findings.
1.3 Writing your paper
The Sage Author Gateway has some general advice and on how to get published, plus links to further resources. Sage Author Services also offers authors a variety of ways to improve and enhance their article including English language editing, plagiarism detection, and video abstract and infographic preparation.
1.3.1 Make your article discoverable
When writing up your paper, think about how you can make it discoverable. The title, keywords and abstract are key to ensuring readers find your article through search engines such as Google. For information and guidance on how best to title your article, write your abstract and select your keywords, have a look at this page on the Gateway: How to Help Readers Find Your Article Online.
2. Editorial policies
2.1 Peer review policy
Sage does not permit the use of author-suggested (recommended) reviewers at any stage of the submission process, be that through the web-based submission system or other communication.
Reviewers should be experts in their fields and should be able to provide an objective assessment of the manuscript. Our policy is that reviewers should not be assigned to a paper if:
• The reviewer is based at the same institution as any of the co-authors
• The reviewer is based at the funding body of the paper
• The author has recommended the reviewer
• The reviewer has provided a personal (e.g. Gmail/Yahoo/Hotmail) email account and an institutional email account cannot be found after performing a basic Google search (name, department and institution).
2.2 Authorship
All parties who have made a substantive contribution to the article should be listed as authors. Principal authorship, authorship order, and other publication credits should be based on the relative scientific or professional contributions of the individuals involved, regardless of their status. A student is usually listed as principal author on any multiple-authored publication that substantially derives from the student’s dissertation or thesis.
Please note that AI chatbots, for example ChatGPT, should not be listed as authors. For more information see the policy on Use of ChatGPT and generative AI tools.
2.3 Acknowledgements
All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in an Acknowledgements section. Examples of those who might be acknowledged include a person who provided purely technical help, or a department chair who provided only general support.
Any acknowledgements should appear only on the title page of your submission.
Please supply any personal acknowledgements separately to the main text to facilitate anonymous peer review.
2.3.1 Third party submissions
Where an individual who is not listed as an author submits a manuscript on behalf of the author(s), a statement must be included in the Acknowledgements section of the manuscript and in the accompanying cover letter. The statements must:
• Disclose this type of editorial assistance – including the individual’s name, company and level of input
• Identify any entities that paid for this assistance
• Confirm that the listed authors have authorized the submission of their manuscript via third party and approved any statements or declarations, e.g. conflicting interests, funding, etc.
Where appropriate, Sage reserves the right to deny consideration to manuscripts submitted by a third party rather than by the authors themselves.
2.4 Declaration of conflicting interests
Accounting History encourages authors to include a declaration of any conflicting interests and recommends you review the good practice guidelines on the Sage Journal Author Gateway.
3. Publishing Policies
3.1 Publication ethics
Sage is committed to upholding the integrity of the academic record. We encourage authors to refer to the Committee on Publication Ethics’ International Standards for Authors and view the Publication Ethics page on the Sage Author Gateway.
3.1.1 Plagiarism
Accounting History and Sage take issues of copyright infringement, plagiarism or other breaches of best practice in publication very seriously. We seek to protect the rights of our authors and we always investigate claims of plagiarism or misuse of published articles. Equally, we seek to protect the reputation of the journal against malpractice. Submitted articles may be checked with duplication-checking software. Where an article, for example, is found to have plagiarised other work or included third-party copyright material without permission or with insufficient acknowledgement, or where the authorship of the article is contested, we reserve the right to take action including, but not limited to: publishing an erratum or corrigendum (correction); retracting the article; taking up the matter with the head of department or dean of the author's institution and/or relevant academic bodies or societies; or taking appropriate legal action.
3.1.2 Prior publication
If material has been previously published it is not generally acceptable for publication in a Sage journal. However, there are certain circumstances where previously published material can be considered for publication. Please refer to the guidance on the Sage Author Gateway or if in doubt, contact the Editor at the address given below.
3.2 Contributor's publishing agreement
Before publication, Sage requires the author as the rights holder to sign a Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement. Sage’s Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement is an exclusive licence agreement which means that the author retains copyright in the work but grants Sage the sole and exclusive right and licence to publish for the full legal term of copyright. Exceptions may exist where an assignment of copyright is required or preferred by a proprietor other than Sage. In this case copyright in the work will be assigned from the author to the society. For more information please visit the Sage Author Gateway.
3.3 Open access and author archiving
Accounting History offers optional open access publishing via the Sage Choice programme and Open Access agreements, where authors can publish open access either discounted or free of charge depending on the agreement with Sage. Find out if your institution is participating by visiting Open Access Agreements at Sage. For more information on Open Access publishing options at Sage please visit Sage Open Access. For information on funding body compliance, and depositing your article in repositories, please visit Sage’s Author Archiving and Re-Use Guidelines and Publishing Policies.
4. Preparing your manuscript for submission
The preferred format for your manuscript is Word. LaTeX files are also accepted. Word and (La)Tex templates are available on the Manuscript Submission Guidelines page of our Author Gateway. The text should be double-spaced throughout and with a minimum of 3cm for left and right hand margins and 5cm at head and foot. Text should be standard 12 point.
4.1.1. Length
Manuscripts should be double-spaced and will generally be no longer than 8,000 words (excluding the abstract, any acknowledgements and the list of references). However, longer submissions (of up to 10,000 words excluding the abstract, acknowledgements, if any, and the references) may be accepted where warranted by the nature of the topic, the extent of the analysis, and the quality of the research and writing. Abstracts are to be a single paragraph of no more than 160 words.
The text should be standard 12 point throughout, using 1.5 line paragraph spacing and with a minimum of 3cm for left and right hand margins and 5cm at head and foot.
4.1.2. Headings
Headings should be formatted so that major headings are flush left, bold, lower case and two font sizes larger than the main text. Second level headings should be flush left, bold, lower case and same size as main text. Third level headings should be flush left, italics, lower case and same size as main text. For example:
1. Flush left, bold, lower case, two font sizes larger than main text
2. Flush left, bold, lower case, same size font as main text
3. Flush left, italics, lower case, same size font as main text.
Headings should have an initial capital and remaining words lower case, unless proper names. Headings are unnumbered.
4.1.3 Keywords
Keywords should be in lowercase, except for names which should start with a capital.
4.1.4 Figures
Figures, tables, diagrams and appendices should be numbered consecutively and titled.
4.1.5 Notes
Notes should appear as endnotes and be numbered consecutively. These should begin on a separate page at the end of the manuscript.
4.1.6 Quotes
Use single quotes, with double quotes within quoted material.
4.1.7 Spelling
UK spelling is to be used except in the case of quoted material.
4.1.8 Numbers
Spell out numbers one to nine; for numbers 10 and over use numerals, except at the beginning of a sentence.
Use numerals with percentages (use per cent and not %) except where a percentage figure appears in tables, figures and appendices and in brackets within the text, in which case % is to be used.
4.1.9 Abbreviations
Do not use abbreviations in the title of a paper, in the abstract, or keywords. Define an abbreviation the first time that it is used (except in the Abstract): write the term out in full followed by the abbreviation in parentheses. Use the abbreviation consistently thereafter, including at the start of sentences.
4.1.10 Use of colons in titles and headings
Format with an initial capital only and remaining words lower case, unless proper names. Run on subtitle after colon, with initial capital after colon.
4.2 Artwork, figures and other graphics
For guidance on the preparation of illustrations, pictures and graphs in electronic format, please visit Sage’s Manuscript Submission Guidelines.
Figures supplied in colour will appear in colour online regardless of whether or not these illustrations are reproduced in colour in the printed version. For specifically requested colour reproduction in print, you will receive information regarding the costs from Sage after receipt of your accepted article.
This journal does not currently accept supplementary material.
Accounting History adheres to the Sage Harvard reference style. View the Sage Harvard guidelines to ensure your manuscript conforms to this reference style.
If you use EndNote to manage references, you can download the Sage Harvard EndNote output file.
4.5 English language editing services
Authors seeking assistance with English language editing, translation, or figure and manuscript formatting to fit the journal’s specifications should consider using Sage Language Services. Visit Sage Language Services on our Journal Author Gateway for further information.
The journal is committed to facilitating openness, transparency and reproducibility of research, and has the following research data sharing policy. For more information, including FAQs please visit the Sage Research Data policy pages.
Subject to appropriate ethical and legal considerations, authors are encouraged to:
- share your research data in a relevant public data repository
- include a data availability statement linking to your data. If it is not possible to share your data, we encourage you to consider using the statement to explain why it cannot be shared.
- cite this data in your research
5. Submitting your manuscript
Accounting History is hosted on Sage Track, a web based online submission and peer review system powered by ScholarOne™ Manuscripts. Visit http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/ach to login and submit your article online.
IMPORTANT: Please check whether you already have an account in the system before trying to create a new one. If you have reviewed or authored for the journal in the past year it is likely that you will have had an account created. For further guidance on submitting your manuscript online please visit ScholarOne Online Help.
5.1 ORCID
As part of our commitment to ensuring an ethical, transparent and fair peer review process Sage is a supporting member of ORCID, the Open Researcher and Contributor ID. ORCID provides a unique and persistent digital identifier that distinguishes researchers from every other researcher, even those who share the same name, and, through integration in key research workflows such as manuscript and grant submission, supports automated linkages between researchers and their professional activities, ensuring that their work is recognized.
The collection of ORCID iDs from corresponding authors is now part of the submission process of this journal. If you already have an ORCID iD you will be asked to associate that to your submission during the online submission process. We also strongly encourage all co-authors to link their ORCID ID to their accounts in our online peer review platforms. It takes seconds to do: click the link when prompted, sign into your ORCID account and our systems are automatically updated. Your ORCID iD will become part of your accepted publication’s metadata, making your work attributable to you and only you. Your ORCID iD is published with your article so that fellow researchers reading your work can link to your ORCID profile and from there link to your other publications.
If you do not already have an ORCID iD please follow this link to create one or visit our ORCID homepage to learn more.
5.2 Information required for completing your submission
You will be asked to provide contact details and academic affiliations for all co-authors via the submission system and identify who is to be the corresponding author. These details must match what appears on your manuscript. The affiliation listed in the manuscript should be the institution where the research was conducted. If an author has moved to a new institution since completing the research, the new affiliation can be included in a manuscript note at the end of the paper. At this stage please ensure you have included all the required statements and declarations and uploaded any additional supplementary files (including reporting guidelines where relevant).
5.3 Permissions
Please also ensure that you have obtained any necessary permission from copyright holders for reproducing any illustrations, tables, figures or lengthy quotations previously published elsewhere. For further information including guidance on fair dealing for criticism and review, please see the Copyright and Permissions page on the Sage Author Gateway.
6. On acceptance and publication
6.1 Sage Production
Your Sage Production Editor will keep you informed as to your article’s progress throughout the production process. Proofs will be made available to the corresponding author via our editing portal Sage Edit or by email, and corrections should be made directly or notified to us promptly. Authors are reminded to check their proofs carefully to confirm that all author information, including names, affiliations, sequence and contact details are correct, and that Funding and Conflict of Interest statements, if any, are accurate.
6.2 Online First publication
Online First allows final articles (completed and approved articles awaiting assignment to a future issue) to be published online prior to their inclusion in a journal issue, which significantly reduces the lead time between submission and publication. Visit the Sage Journals help page for more details, including how to cite Online First articles.
6.3 Access to your published article
Sage provides authors with online access to their final article.
6.4 Promoting your article
Publication is not the end of the process! You can help disseminate your paper and ensure it is as widely read and cited as possible. The Sage Author Gateway has numerous resources to help you promote your work. Visit the Promote Your Article page on the Gateway for tips and advice.
7. Further information
Any correspondence, queries or additional requests for information on the manuscript submission process should be sent to the Accounting History editorial office as follows:
E-mail: acchistory@vuw.ac.nz