50 years of Accounting and Business Research

We are delighted to open this volume marking a half century of Accounting Business Research (ABR). The journal was established by the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) in 1970. In the first issue, Walter Taplin’s editorial highlights the role of ‘Business’ in the journal’s title by stating: ‘It is hoped that many of the problems discussed and the projects described will be those that arise in the practical context of industry and commerce.’ These origins are still reflected in our current aims and scope, which state that the objective of ABR is to disseminate original research that contributes to the understanding of the role of accounting in business, for a wide range of audiences including academics, practitioners, and policy-makers. Over the past fifty years, the journal has been relayed across six editorial regimes. The founding editor, Walter Taplin, handed over the editorship in 1975 to Bob Parker, who was joined by Chris Nobes seven years later. In 1993, Ken Peasnell took over, along with Mahmoud Ezzamel and Peter Moizer. Pauline Weetman became editor in 2006, followed by Vivien Beattie in 2013. We began our term as ABR editors in 2016 and we are honoured to inherit ABR’s strong foundation and reputational legacy, built by the excellent work of our predecessors. The past fifty years has been a dynamic and vibrant period for accounting research. Publications in ABR provide important evidence, opinions, and debates that witness the evolving interactions between accounting and business over this time. We invite readers to take this opportunity to visit the ABR website (https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/rabr20/current) and browse the past and current issues of the journal. Doing so will provide both an interesting journey through time, seeing how the accounting literature has evolved through ABR’s earlier articles, as well as a flavour of contemporary accounting issues covered in our more recent articles. The continued openness of ABR to a wide variety of research approaches and perspectives will also be evident to all. Reflecting the journal’s origins and long-standing partnership with the ICAEW, in 2006 ABR began publishing the International Accounting Policy Forum (IAPF) special issue.