Comparative analysis of scholarly accounting thought in the past four decades

The contemporary accounting research has developed substantially in the past four decades. We make a comparative analysis of research tools according to 3,508 accounting articles from 3 top accounting journals, such as contemporary Accounting Research, Journal of Accounting Research, and the Accounting Review. Based on this, we make a further study on content of accounting research in the recent period and reveal the most popular topics accounting research of this period. The results show that research tools are remarkably different between four decades. Especially in the recent decade, complex mathematical equations and multivariate statistical analyses are frequently adopted for acceptance for publication. And security prices or return, auditor behavior, forecasts, manager behavior, and information structures have been the most popular topics of the accounting research.