Comparing research frontiers: A machine-learning analysis of the research published in the Accounting & Finance Review and in international leading accounting journals

This study compares the studies published in the Accounting & Finance Review (A&FR) with those of top-tier international accounting journals over the past decade. It aims to offer a comprehensive overview of the topics under analysis in each of these settings, highlighting key areas of research activity and ongoing debates in the accounting field across both outlets. By mapping and comparing the thematic landscape of the A&FR with that of top-tier international journals, the study provides a structured understanding of how accounting research is developed across different publication outlets. These results could potentially serve as a foundation for setting future research agendas and guiding academic inquiry toward areas of high relevance and potential impact. Our text-mining approach enables the discovery of patterns and emerging trends that are often overlooked in manual reviews. The insights from this analysis can inform academic strategy, support curriculum development, and guide funding priorities, ultimately fostering more targeted and impactful research within the accounting discipline. Our analysis is based on a dataset of 277 articles published in the A&FR and 3,652 articles published in top-tier international accounting journals classified as Association of Business Schools (ABS) 4* and ABS 4 from 2015 to 2025. Using Python, we apply the latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) algorithm to extract topics from the abstracts, identifying latent patterns and thematic structures within the research corpus. For the A&FR, the model identifies nine distinct topics: Control systems, Budgeting-related issues, Organizational performance, Funding and credit-related matters, Insurance and actuarial issues, Taxation, Earnings management, Auditing, and Financial markets and investment returns. In top-tier international journals, the LDA solution identifies seven topics: Auditing, Earnings announcements and analyst earnings forecasts, Corporate disclosure, Accounting and capital markets, Taxation, Management control systems, and Empirical modelling in financial accounting. Despite differences in emphasis, both outlets share two topics (Auditing and Taxation), indicating at least some areas of convergence between Brazilian and international accounting scholarship.

Keywords:
accounting research; topic modeling; research frontiers