A Historical Study of the First 30 Years of "Accounting Horizons"

In this paper, we undertake a historical study of the first 30 years of the American Accounting Association's journal, Accounting Horizons. The journal was initially intended to bridge academe and practice. We review the founding of the journal and then trace the development of both the Commentaries and Main Articles sections. One of our principal findings is that there was a steep increase in the percentage of Main Articles using regression analysis-statistical tests during the 30 years, eventually exceeding that in The Accounting Review. Our analysis of the likely reasons for this trend leads us to conclude that foundational changes in the culture of the public accounting profession and in accounting academe had a profound impact on the content of Horizons during our period of study. We conclude with some suggestions for the journal moving forward.