Best Dissertation Award

The Financial Accounting and Reporting Section seeks to advance financial accounting and reporting research by recognizing and rewarding outstanding work of junior colleagues. Accordingly, a Best Dissertation Award is given each year to recognize the author of an outstanding financial accounting/reporting dissertation completed during the previous year. Submitted dissertations are judged by an Awards Committee appointed by the President of the Section. In selecting the award recipient, the Awards Committee considers the importance of the financial accounting/reporting issue, the quality of execution of the study, and the contribution of the research.

The Best Dissertation Award carries with it a $1,500 cash prize for the winner and an engraved plaque for both the winner and the dissertation chair. The winner is announced and recognized at the Section's meeting during the AAA Annual Meeting in year of the award.

Rules and Submission Procedures

The completed dissertation must have been defended during the most recently ended calendar year. The author of the dissertation must be a member of the Financial Accounting and Reporting Section.

Authors wishing to be considered for the award should submit the following materials to the Awards Committee Chair NO LATER THAN March 1 for dissertations defended during the previous year:

  1. A detailed dissertation abstract in WORD or PDF format, not to exceed 7 pages. The abstract should explain the research question addressed in the dissertation, the importance of the research, how the dissertation builds on prior work, samples, hypotheses, methodologies, and research results.
  2. A letter from the dissertation committee's chair (in Word or PDF format), not to exceed 2 pages, attesting that the completed dissertation was defended during the most recently ended calendar year. This letter may be in the form of a nomination and may include an assessment of the importance and quality of the work.
  3. The complete dissertation in PDF format.

The nominee's dissertation chair should submit the required materials as an email attachment by the deadline to the Chair of the Best Dissertation Award Committee:

Chair of the FARS Best Dissertation Award — Lian Fen Lee (lianfen.lee@bc.edu)