Foster ranked #10 in the world for accounting research, #2 for financial accounting

The annual BYU Accounting Rankings list the University of Washington Foster School of Business at #10 in the world (#8 in the United States) for accounting research published in the discipline’s top 11 journals over the past six years (2016-2021). Foster ranks #16 for accounting research productivity since 1990.

Foster’s Department of Accounting faculty also registers at #2 in the world for research contributions to the field of financial accounting over the past six years.

BYU’s comprehensive database ranks accounting departments overall and by topical area based on the number of articles their faculty have published in the most influential journals over periods of 6, 12 and 32 years (since the ranking began in 1990). Topical areas include accounting information systems, audit, managerial accounting, tax accounting and financial accounting. Financial accounting is the area of study pursued by the largest number of accounting researchers.

Individual excellence

The Accounting Rankings also track the contributions of individual researchers over three different time periods and in five different topical areas.

In overall accounting research contributions, seven current Foster School faculty members stand among the world’s 300 most productive researchers over the past six years:

Ed deHaan (#42)
Stephanie Grant (#158)
Frank Hodge (#158)
Phillip Quinn (#158)
Elizabeth Blankespoor (#256)
Weili Ge (#256)
Sarah McVay (#256)

Another seven current Foster School faculty are among the top 350 accounting researchers of the past 30 years:

Sarah McVay (#95)
Frank Hodge (#112)
Dawn Matsumoto (#196)
Weili Ge (#229)
Charles M.C. Lee (#229)
Dave Burgstahler (#324)
Ed deHaan (#324)

Stars of financial accounting

Eight Foster School faculty members rank among the world’s 150 most productive researchers in the area of financial accounting over the past six years:

Ed deHaan (#14)
Stephanie Grant (#50)
Frank Hodge (#50)
Elizabeth Blankespoor (#72)
Phillip Quinn (#72)
Darren Bernard (#131)
Weili Ge (#131)
Charles M.C. Lee (#131)

Eight Foster faculty members are listed among the top 200 financial accounting researchers over the past 12 years:

Ed deHaan (#37)
Sarah McVay (#37)
Frank Hodge (#58)
Elizabeth Blankespoor (#82)
Weili Ge (#82)
Dawn Matsumoto (#119)
Asher Curtis (#176)
Stephanie Grant (#176)

And eight Foster faculty members are among the top 250 financial accounting researchers since 1990:

Sarah McVay (#45)
Frank Hodge (#62)
Dawn Matsumoto (#72)
Charles M.C. Lee (#88)
Weili Ge (#108)
Ed deHaan (#131)
Dave Burgstahler (#194)
Elizabeth Blankespoor (#230)

Multiplier effect

Beyond the direct research impact of current Foster accounting faculty, the Department of Accounting also has educated a significant number of doctoral students who have become major producers of influential scholarship as they have fanned out to major universities around the world.

Foster is ranked #4 in the world for the six-year research record of its accounting PhD graduates dating back to 1990, and #6 for research output of alumni who have graduated in the past nine years.

For the collective output of its PhD Program alumni since 1990 across individual topic areas, Foster ranks #2 in financial accounting research, #5 in tax accounting research, #11 in managerial accounting research and #41 in audit research.

Tallying the work of its more recent PhD grads (since 2012), Foster ranks #1 in financial accounting research, #15 in tax accounting research, #21 in accounting information systems research, #24 in managerial accounting research and #38 in audit research.

The BYU index considers research in 11 journals. Six of them—Accounting, Organizations, and Society; Contemporary Accounting Research; Journal of Accounting & Economics; Journal of Accounting Research; Review of Accounting Studies; and The Accounting Review—are considered the most-influential peer-reviewed journals in the discipline of accounting. The other five—Auditing: A Journal of Practice & Theory; Behavioral Research in Accounting; Journal of Information Systems; Journal of Management Accounting Research; Accounting Horizons; and Journal of the American Taxation Association—are deemed the highest-rated accounting journals for non-financial topical areas.