Author Guidelines

Preparing Your Manuscript

Please refer to the guidelines below, along with the Accounting Perspectives Style Guide, to prepare your manuscript for submission.

Papers may be written either in English or in French. 

Editorial Policies

Aims and Scope

AP welcomes submissions in the following four streams:

  • Literature reviews that synthesize an area of accounting research, with an emphasis on the research questions that have been addressed and the areas that warrant further analysis.
  • Applied research and commentary that address relevant issues for Canadian accounting, including: financial reporting, assurance services, performance measurement, governance, information systems, tax, and ethics. 
  • Educational articles on learning, curriculum, competency-based and professional education, evaluation, and employment
  • Instructional cases based on real events, people or organizations, or fictional but representative of real accounting issues. Submitted cases must be ready for use in the classroom and include teaching notes.

Submissions are accepted in English and French.

Information for Authors

Format

Verification of Ethics Approval for Research Involving Human Participants (if applicable)

Cover Page

A cover page should contain the following information:

  • Title
  • Author names and affiliations
  • Name, email address, and affiliation of the author to whom correspondence should be addressed
  • Acknowledgements and information on grants received.

Authors should not identify themselves within the paper.

Abstracts

An abstract (maximum 250 words) should be presented on the page immediately preceding the text, should include the research question, method of examination, and principal findings, and should be followed by four keywords (to aid in indexing).

Manuscripts

  • Typed, double-spaced, with 1-inch (2.54 cm) margins all around
  • All pages, including footnotes, tables, figures, illustrations, appendices, and references should be serially numbered
  • In the text, when not in lists or tables, numbers from one through nine should be spelled out, except when used with mathematical, statistical, scientific, or technical units and quantities.

Supporting Information (online only)

Online supplements appear only on the publisher’s website and must be referenced in the print article. Interested readers can access the files via the Supporting Information link associated with the online article. 

Format: See the publisher’s guidelines for information about file formats for supporting information. Include a footer that contains the article title, and consecutive page numbers preceded by the letter “S” (e.g. S1, S2, ... ). Name the file informatively and end the file name with SuppInfo (e.g., Table_4_SuppInfo.pdf).

Referencing the supporting information: To guide readers of the print article to the supporting information, refer to the materials at appropriate places in the text. Add a footnote at the first reference, worded as shown below. Later references to online material do not require further footnotes.

For example:

... The wording used by the auditor is presented in online Appendix A.12 ... Our coding scheme for the auditor’s wording appears in online Appendix B. 

____________

12 Please see supporting information, “Appendix A: Auditor Wording,” as an addition to the online article.

Submitting: Upload the supporting information file along with your manuscript, using file type “Supporting Information (online only)”. Should you have any questions regarding this, please e-mail the editorial team.

Footnotes

Footnotes should be used for extensions where inclusion in the body of the text might disrupt continuity.

  • Automated, numbered consecutively with superscript Arabic numerals
  • Same size and formatting as the main text.

Tables, Figures, Illustrations

  • Tables and figures should be grouped at the end of the manuscript. Placing in the manuscript should be indicated with notes: “Insert Table 1 here” and so forth.
  • Each table, figure, or illustration should be presented on a separate page and bear an Arabic number and title.

If you use Microsoft Word’s Track Changes function, before submitting your electronic files, please ensure that you accept all changes and turn off Track Changes in your files.

We accept manuscripts prepared by LaTeX.

Please also refer to the detailed Accounting Perspectives Style Guide (PDF) for formatting instructions.

Disclosure

Authors are jointly responsible for adhering to the highest standards of academic integrity in the conduct, writing and presentation of their research.  Authors must agree to a declaration of academic integrity during the initial submission process. 

Together with the paper being submitted, authors are asked to include a copy of any other paper, whether or not published elsewhere, that shares data or modelling analysis with the submitted paper. The contribution of the submitted paper must be clearly distinguished from other such papers. If the submitted paper is based on an experiment, survey, or other data manipulations, participants or variables involved in that collection are reflected in the paper, authors are asked to include a memo describing and explaining the circumstances and estimating any effects on the results. The memo may be sent to reviewers.

Inquiries can be addressed to the Editor-in-Chief, Leslie Berger, by e-mail: ap@caaa.ca.

Papers Accepted for Publication

It is vital that the final version of the manuscript be complete, correct, carefully proof-read, and properly formatted. The use of a copyeditor before submitting your final version is recommended, as the accepted version will be posted as a PDF on our publisher's website under "Accepted Papers", without copyediting or proofreading. 

Authors whose papers have been accepted for publication must ensure the paper conforms to AP's production and style requirements as detailed in the documents below. 

Publication Documents and Forms:

*For articles accepted for publication in AP after January 1, 2021, corresponding authors will receive an email from Wiley Author Services requesting a completed copyright license.

Guidelines for Instructional Case Writers

Instructional Cases

Accounting Perspectives welcomes instructional cases that are real (based on real events, people, and organizations), or realistic (fictional, but representing real accounting issues).

Manuscripts should include the case and detailed teaching notes submitted in one file.

Cases should:

  • not exceed 30 pages (including all exhibits)
  • be written in the past tense, except for quotations and dialogues
  • ideally open with an introduction of the key protagonists, the organization, and the decision to be made. Company and industry backgrounds should follow, before presenting information specific to the decision.
  • Have exhibits and tables grouped at the end of the case.

 

Teaching Notes

Teaching notes are a major acceptance criterion for instructional case submissions. They should follow at the very end of the document.

Please include:

Brief Summary of the Case

Case Learning Objectives

  • An overview of the case and its learning objectives, information about any specialized knowledge required and sources for obtaining that knowledge.

Research Methods

  • How the information used in the case was gathered
  • Any relationship between the author and the organization and/or protagonists used in the case,
  • The extent to which the organization, protagonists and/or information in the case had to be disguised.

Implementation Guidance/Teaching Plan

  • The courses that the case is best suited for and the level of student maturity required to fully appreciate the case material
  • Assignment or classroom discussion questions with detailed answers
  • The amount of time that will need to be devoted in and out of class and the nature of prior preparation that would be useful
  • Other pedagogical guidance such as the use of teams or other such approaches.

Classroom Testing

  • The extent and type of classroom testing that has been conducted, and evidence of the effectiveness of the case in achieving its objectives. Untested instructional cases will not be accepted.

Teaching Notes for cases published in Accounting Perspectives are exclusively to CAAA members, who can access them by logging in to MyCAAA.

When you submit your manuscript online, there will be a submission question related to the Canadian status (if applicable) of your submission. Please be prepared to answer according to the following guidelines:  

  • Submissions are defined as Canadian if the author, or the first author in the case of a co-authored paper, is affiliated with a Canadian postsecondary institution.
  • Authors need not be affiliated to a Canadian institution to submit to Accounting Perspectives.