Accounting Research Letters Editorial Board
August 24, 2024

Aims and Scopes

Accounting Research Letters (ARL) is a peer-reviewed letter journal dedicated to accounting research, published by the Accounting and Economic Association of Japan. ARL provides rapid publications of important new results in all areas of accounting and its related fields, including, but not limited to, economics, finance, and management. It covers a wide range of topics, theories, and methodologies, and welcomes papers with national, regional, and international focuses. ARL aims to offer a rapid response to papers, with peer reviews by the editors and at least one anonymous reviewer.


When submitting a manuscript, authors are required to ensure that:

  • the manuscript has been reviewed by a proofreader.
  • the manuscript has not been submitted to other journals.
  • the manuscript has not been accepted by other journals.

Your Paper, Your Way

This journal now differentiates between the requirements for initial and final submissions. You can choose to submit your manuscript as a single Microsoft Word or PDF file for the peer review process. Only when your paper reaches the final stage will you be required to format it according to the journal’s style guidelines for publication. At the final submission stage, you must provide an editable file (Microsoft Word or LaTeX).
To learn more, please visit the Preparation section below.

Type of Articles

This journal has three sessions: (i) Articles, (ii) Comments, and (iii) Replies. In the Articles section, we primarily require original findings in accounting research. However, this journal also accepts papers that conducted replication studies in this section. In the Comments section, the authors provide comments on papers published in the Articles section of this journal. In the Replies section, the authors respond to the comments made in the Comments section. The editorial team will decide whether to accept or reject comments submitted for the Comment section.

Submission Fee

Accounting Research Letters requires a submission fee of JPY 6,000, which is waived for members of the Accounting and Economic Association of Japan. Students are offered a reduced submission fee of JPY 3,000. The submission fee is non-refundable, and a paper may be rejected by the Editor without being sent for review if it is inconsistent with the Aims and Scope of the Journal. The submission fees are used to support journal-related activities. If you are a member of the Accounting and Economic Association of Japan, the submission fee is not required.

Word Limit

As Accounting Research Letters functions as a letter journal, it imposes a word limit of fewer than 2,500 words. When using figures or tables, the manuscript must adhere to a page limit of fewer than 14 pages using our format (A4, double-spaced, one-inch margins, font size 11pt, Times New Roman). The manuscript should begin on the second page, with the title page as the first page. The manuscript, in all sections, must meet one of the above limitations, excluding the title page, the abstract, and Online Appendix. Footnotes (font size 10pt) are permitted, but their word count must be in included in the overall word limit.

Review Process

Submitted papers are first considered by the editorial board of the journal and then allocated to a Handling Editor, who may be an Editor specializing in that topic. Papers that are not desk rejected are typically sent to one reviewer. Normally, at least one authoritative review is needed before the Handling Editor can make a decision (or recommendation to the Editor) on whether to accept, reject, or request a revision of the submitted paper. In other cases, if the Editor in charge of a manuscript disagrees with the outcome of the reviews (or parts of them), they may choose to send the paper for a final round of review to clear any doubts about the quality of the paper and its results, methodology, and approach. Ultimately, it is up to the Editor in charge of that manuscript to make the final decision.

Submission Checklist

You can use this list to perform a final check of your submission before sending it to the journal for review. If you have used generative AI, you must specify how it was used in your manuscript. Please check the relevant section in this Guide for Authors for more details.

Ensure that the following items are included:

Title Page: Authors must include the following information on the title page.

  • Title
  • Author(s) name(s)
  • Affiliation(s)
  • Email address
  • Full postal address

Additionally, in the title page, the authors are required to declare:

  • Declaration of interest
  • Declaration of generative AI in scientific writing (Optional)
  • Data availability statement
  • Founding information (If applicable)
  • Acknowledgements (Optional)

Manuscript:

  • Title
  • Abstract (maximum 150 words)
  • Keywords (3-5)
  • All figures (with relevant captions)
  • All tables (including titles, descriptions, footnotes)
  • Ensure all figure and table citations in the text match the files provided
  • References

Style

In the final submission, authors are required to submit an editable file (MS Word or LaTeX). If you use LaTeX, please also submit the supplementary files needed to compile the manuscript (e.g, .sty, .bib, or .png). The final draft must adhere to the following style guidelines.

Article structure
The manuscript does not require specific content sections. For example, it can be divided into sections such as Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Conclusion, and Discussion. It is not necessary to use these specific headings; you should choose appropriate ones based on the content. However, the final draft must adhere to the following style:

  • The reference list should be titled “References.”
  • Each section should be numbered using section numbers, such as “1 Introduction” and “2.1 Model Assumption.” The Abstract and References should not be numbered. Additionally, ensure there is a line break before and after each section.
  • The titles of sections and subsections should capitalize the first letter of each word, except for conjunctions.

Figures and Tables

  • Figures and tables should be supplied after the references, using a logical naming convention for your files (e.g., Figure 1, Figure 2, Table 1, Table 2, etc.).
  • In the manuscript, authors must indicate the placement of figures and tables.

Math formulations

  • Present simple formulae inline with normal text, where possible.
  • Use the solidus (/) instead of a horizontal line for small fractional terms (e.g., X/Y).
  • Present variables in italics.
  • Display equations separately from the text, numbering them consecutively in the order they are referred to within the text.

Appendix

  • In the Appendix, distinguish the numbering for formulae, tables, and figures (e.g., (A.1), (A.2) or Table A1…).

Reference list

  • You must format a reference list according to the APA Style (American Psychological Association, 2020, 7th Edition).

Handling of Copyrights

The copyrights of works published in Accounting Research Letters will, in principle, belong to the Accounting and Economic Association of Japan from the time the editorial board accepts the final manuscript.

Authors of works whose copyrights are held by the Accounting and Economic Association of Japan may use their works after obtaining prior written permission from the editorial board. The editorial board will grant permission unless there are special reasons not to do so.

If it is alleged that a work published in Accounting Research Letters infringes on the copyrights or other rights and interests of a third party, the author of the work in question shall bear all responsibility.

If a third party requests to use a work whose copyright is held by the Accounting and Economic Association of Japan, the Accounting and Economic Association of Japan may grant permission after deliberation by the board of directors.