What Is Accounting Research? Fields & Methods

Accounting is the system of measuring, recording, summarizing, and communicating economic information about an organization, and it is also an academic discipline that studies how that information is produced, regulated, audited, and used. The word covers two things that overlap but are not identical: a profession, whose members prepare financial statements, audit them, advise on taxes, and manage costs, and a research field, whose members test how accounting information affects decisions, markets, and institutions. This guide explains both, describes the main subfields and methods, names the standard setters and scholarly societies, and shows where accounting meets research administration through sponsored-projects accounting, cost principles, and the Single Audit.

This page is educational. It is not accounting, audit, legal, or tax advice, and nothing here replaces the judgment of a licensed professional or your institution’s finance office.

What Is Accounting?

At its core, accounting answers a small set of recurring questions about an organization. What does it own and owe? What did it earn or spend over a period? Where did its money come from, and where did it go? Were the amounts reported fairly, and was the money used for the purposes it was given? Every organization that handles money needs answers to these questions, from a corner shop to a multinational firm, a hospital, a university, or a government agency.

Two features distinguish accounting from nearby fields. First, it runs on rules. Financial reporting follows published standards, so that two organizations describe similar transactions in comparable ways. Second, it is built on verification. The idea that an independent party examines reported numbers is central to the profession and shapes much of what researchers study.

Accounting as a Profession

People who work in accounting typically fall into a few broad lines of practice. The boundaries blur, and many careers cross them.

Financial accounting and reporting — preparing financial statements for outside users such as investors, lenders, regulators, and donors, following a recognized framework.
Managerial (management) accounting — producing information for internal decisions: budgets, product and service costs, performance measures, and forecasts. Cost accounting belongs here.
Auditing and assurance — independent examination of financial statements, internal controls, or compliance with rules, ending in an opinion or report.
Tax — computing and planning for tax obligations under tax law, and representing taxpayers.
Governmental and not-for-profit accounting — the same functions applied to public bodies, universities, hospitals, and charities, with their own reporting conventions.
Forensic and accounting information systems work — investigating fraud and designing the systems that capture financial data.

In the United States, the best-known credential is the Certified Public Accountant (CPA), a license issued at the state level. Requirements for education, examination, and experience differ by jurisdiction, so anyone considering the credential should check their own state board. Management accountants and internal auditors have separate professional designations as well.

Accounting as an Academic Field

Academic accounting is housed mostly in business schools, usually in the same buildings as management and business research and finance. It is closely connected to economics, to statistics, and increasingly to data science. Researchers in the field are typically trained in doctoral programs that combine accounting theory, economics, and empirical methods.

The research questions are broad. Does a change in reporting rules change how managers behave? How do investors react to earnings announcements? What makes an audit more or less reliable? How do incentive systems inside firms shape performance? How do tax rules affect corporate decisions? How should costs be assigned to products, services, or research projects? Because the answers feed back into standard setting, regulation, and professional practice, the field has a strong applied orientation.

The Main Research Subfields

Financial accounting research

This line of work studies the information in financial statements and what happens when reporting rules change. Typical topics include how markets respond to reported earnings, how accounting choices affect the quality of reported numbers, the consequences of disclosure requirements, and the economics of financial reporting more broadly.

Managerial accounting research

Managerial research looks inside organizations: budgeting, cost systems, performance evaluation, incentive design, and how accounting information shapes the decisions of managers and employees. It draws heavily on organizational behavior and economics.

Auditing research

Auditing research asks how audits are planned and carried out, what affects auditor judgment, how audit quality can be measured, and what the effects of audit regulation are. It also examines internal control and corporate governance.

Tax research

Tax research studies how tax rules influence the behavior of firms and individuals and how tax information is reported and disclosed. It overlaps with public finance and law.

Accounting information systems and analytics

This growing area covers how accounting data is captured and processed, and how automation, data analytics, and machine learning change both practice and research. The AI-related portion connects to CASRAI’s coverage of AI governance and assurance.

Accounting education and history

Some scholars study how accounting is taught and learned, and others study how accounting practices and institutions developed over time. Both have their own journals and conference tracks.

How Accounting Researchers Work: Methods

Accounting research uses most of the methods found across the social sciences, and the choice of method follows the question.

Archival (empirical) research. Researchers analyze existing records, such as financial statements, stock prices, audit fees, and regulatory filings, usually with regression-based statistical methods. A central challenge is distinguishing causation from correlation, which is why methods for causal inference are widely used. See statistics for the underlying toolkit.
Experimental research. Participants, often students, professionals, or online workers, make decisions in a controlled setting so that researchers can isolate the effect of one factor, such as a disclosure format or an incentive scheme. Behavioral work in the field overlaps with behavioral economics.
Analytical (theoretical) research. Mathematical models of how rational parties behave under particular reporting, contracting, or auditing rules.
Field and case studies. Close study of how a particular organization uses accounting information, often through interviews and observation.
Surveys and interviews. Collecting practitioners’ views and practices at scale or in depth.
Textual and computational analysis. Applying natural-language processing and machine learning to disclosures, filings, and audit documents.

Whatever the method, good practice includes transparent data sources, careful identification of what the research design can and cannot show, and reproducible analysis. CASRAI’s coverage of research data management and reproducibility applies here as it does elsewhere.

Standard Setters and the Rules Accounting Follows

Accounting practice is shaped by a layered set of bodies, and much accounting research studies their effects.

FASB and U.S. GAAP. In the United States, generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) for most private-sector entities are set through the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB). Governmental entities follow a separate standard-setting arrangement. Consult fasb.org for its current standards and structure.
IFRS and the IASB. The International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) is an independent standard-setting body within the IFRS Foundation, a not-for-profit public-interest organization. According to the Foundation, its IFRS Accounting Standards are required for use by more than 140 jurisdictions, and the Foundation was created in 2001. In 2021 it also established the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) to develop sustainability-related disclosure standards.
Auditing and regulatory bodies. Auditing standards, securities regulation, and oversight of public-company auditors come from separate regulators and professional bodies, which differ by country.

The coexistence of different frameworks is itself a research topic: scholars ask whether adopting a common set of standards improves comparability, and what changes when a country switches frameworks.

Scholarly and Professional Societies

The American Accounting Association (AAA) describes itself as a global community of educators, researchers, practitioners, and students that aims to unite accounting research, education, and practice. Its website lists 18 journals in its digital library and 17 specialized sections, and its publications include The Accounting Review, Accounting Horizons, and Issues in Accounting Education, along with journals on auditing, taxation, and other specialties. It also maintains the Accounting Hall of Fame.

The AICPA (American Institute of CPAs) is the major U.S. professional body. Its site states that in 2017 it merged with the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA, founded 1919) to form an international alliance, and that AICPA & CIMA together serve 580,000 members, candidates, and registrants across 150 countries and territories. These figures come from the organization’s own site and change over time, so confirm current numbers there.

Business-school accreditors, such as the AACSB discussed in the management research guide, also influence how accounting programs and faculty scholarship are evaluated.

Journals and Where Accounting Research Is Published

Accounting scholars publish in the AAA’s journals and in a range of independent academic journals covering financial reporting, auditing, managerial accounting, and tax. Many also publish in finance, economics, and management journals when the question crosses fields. Journal rankings vary by school and country, and no single list is authoritative, so researchers should check what their own institution and field use. For general publishing mechanics, see CASRAI’s publishing hub.

Funding for Accounting Research

Much accounting research is supported through business-school budgets, internal research funds, and access to data subscriptions rather than large external grants. External support can come from professional associations, foundations, standard setters and audit firms (which sometimes sponsor research or provide data access), and government programs for work that fits their missions. In the United States, the National Science Foundation funds social, behavioral, and economic sciences research broadly, but you should confirm current programs and eligibility directly with the funder. Where a funder or a firm provides data or money, disclosing that support and managing any conflict of interest is part of responsible research practice.

Where Accounting Meets Research Administration

Accounting is not only a subject of research; it is the machinery that keeps sponsored research funded and compliant. Every research administrator works with accounting concepts daily.

Cost principles and allowable costs

For U.S. federal awards, a charge must generally be allowable, allocable, and reasonable to be paid from an award. See allocability and unallowable cost under 2 CFR 200, the comparison of direct and indirect costs, and FAR Part 31 and 2 CFR 200, which are the two main sets of federal cost principles. Time charged to awards is documented through time and effort reporting.

Indirect costs

Institutions recover facilities and administrative costs through negotiated rates. See indirect cost rate agreements, indirect cost rate proposals, and the cognizant federal agency that negotiates them.

Cost Accounting Standards

The Cost Accounting Standards (CAS) are a separate set of federal rules that apply to certain negotiated government contracts and require consistent cost accounting practices. Whether they apply to a given organization depends on its contracts, so check with your finance and contracts offices. See Cost Accounting Standards and the CAS Disclosure Statement (DS-2).

The Single Audit

A non-federal entity that spends federal awards above a threshold must have a Single Audit of its financial statements and federal programs. For fiscal years beginning on or after October 1, 2024, the revised Uniform Guidance (2 CFR Part 200) raised the expenditure threshold from $750,000 to $1,000,000. The threshold and the rules can change, so confirm them in the current regulation. The audit follows the OMB Compliance Supplement, and recipients report on the Schedule of Expenditures of Federal Awards. For the contrast with an ordinary audit, read Single Audit vs. Regular Financial Statement Audit.

For the wider picture, see the grants management and research administration hubs.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is accounting a science?

Accounting is best described as a social science and a professional practice. Academic accounting research uses scientific methods, such as hypothesis testing and controlled experiments, to study how accounting information works. The rules of accounting themselves are set by standard setters and regulators, not discovered.

What is the difference between financial and managerial accounting?

Financial accounting produces reports for outside users and follows published standards. Managerial accounting produces information for internal decisions and is not bound by those external reporting rules.

What is the difference between accounting and auditing?

Accountants prepare and maintain financial records and reports. Auditors independently examine them and give an opinion or report on whether they are fairly presented or comply with requirements.

What is the difference between GAAP and IFRS?

Both are bodies of accounting standards for financial reporting. U.S. GAAP is used in the United States; IFRS Accounting Standards, developed by the IASB, are required in many other jurisdictions. Specific differences are technical and change over time, so consult the standards themselves.

How do you become an accounting researcher?

Most academic accounting researchers hold a doctorate (PhD or similar) in accounting. Some also hold professional credentials such as a CPA license. Requirements vary by school and country.

Is a CPA license needed to do accounting research?

Not generally. A CPA license is a professional credential for practice, while research careers are built on the doctorate and publication record.

What is sponsored-projects accounting?

It is the set of financial practices a university or research organization uses to account for grant and contract funds: recording charges, applying cost principles, billing or drawing funds, reporting to sponsors, and closing out awards.

Does every institution need a Single Audit?

Only entities that spend federal awards above the regulatory threshold are subject to it. Check the current threshold and your own expenditures with your finance office.

Related CASRAI Resources

This guide is part of CASRAI’s Branches of Science series. Closely related discipline guides include economics, management and business research, operations research, behavioral economics, public administration, and statistics.

What Is Accounting Research? Fields, Methods, and Funding