AAA Competitive Manuscript Award
Sponsored by the American Accounting Association
Call for Nominations and Award Criteria
Nominations Deadline: January 31 at 11:59 pm Eastern Time
The Competitive Manuscript Award Screening Committee is currently accepting nominations for the 2025 Competitive Manuscript Award. The Competitive Manuscript Award Selection Committee reviews and evaluates nominations from those manuscripts identified by the Competitive Manuscript Award Screening Committee and selects the recipient(s) of the award based on the below criteria.
Award Intent
- The Competitive Manuscript Award is intended to showcase the highest quality solo work by junior researchers—those who are current PhD students or have earned their PhD within the past five years.
- The anticipation is that papers selected for the award will be published in The Accounting Review (TAR) subject to satisfactory resolution of the editorial review process.
Award Selection Criteria
- The Competitive Manuscript Award Screening Committee will assess subject matter interest, depth of research, contribution to knowledge, and clarity of exposition. In particular, the award committee will assess the contribution of the research, as reflected in the:
o Importance/interest of the research question
o Coherence of the theoretical framework and/or predictions
o Rigor of the design and analysis
o Plausibility of the results
o Quality of the communication
with a focus on identifying those papers that have a reasonable chance of ultimately being publishable in The Accounting Review. - Up to six papers will be forwarded to the Competitive Manuscript Award Selection Committee comprised of the Senior Editor of The Accounting Review who chairs the committee and a subset of editors and past editors of The Accounting Review selected by the Senior Editor of The Accounting Review.
- The Competitive Manuscript Award Selection Committee will select as many as three award recipients.
Award Eligibility Criteria
- Nominees for the 2025 award must either be current PhD students or have earned their PhD during the five calendar years preceding the year of the award – 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, or 2024.
- Any subject matter in the field of accounting is appropriate for inclusion.
- Manuscripts must generally conform to the style and length requirements of The Accounting Review. A submission to the AAA Competitive Manuscript Award should be considered as if it were a submission to The Accounting Review and must meet all requirements that apply therewith, including not being under review at another journal.
- Co-authored papers are not eligible.
- Papers currently in the review process at The Accounting Review are eligible.
- Papers previously rejected from The Accounting Review are not eligible.
- Previously published manuscripts are not eligible.
- The expectation for authors selected for the award who have not yet submitted their manuscript to The Accounting Review is that they will do so, and they will need to formally submit to The Accounting Review.
- Works that are not selected for the award are eligible for re-nomination in a future year as long as all other eligibility requirements are met.
Instructions for Submitting Nominations
- Self-nominations are encouraged.
- Authors do not need to submit the manuscript to The Accounting Review at the same time as the award.
- Members of the committee are encouraged to solicit and submit nominations.
- All conflict-of-interest rules applicable to The Accounting Review also apply to both the Screening and Selection Committee members. Conflicts are managed at the discretion of the Chair (either by replacing the committee member or recusing the committee member from voting on the paper for which they have a conflict).
- Manuscripts will be subject to a blind review; therefore, all personal information, any "identifying" information, acknowledgements on the title or abstract page, including the author’s dissertation chair and other committee members (which would indicate the school the author is from), a list of schools where the paper has been presented, and awards the paper previously won should be removed prior to submission in order facilitate a truly "blind" review. The AAA Professional Staff Liaison will ask you to remove any identifying information in the submission prior to sending the submission to the Chair.
- Each nomination must include:
- An electronic copy of the anonymized manuscript in PDF with all identifying information removed, and
- A cover letter stating the mailing address, the date PhD degree was awarded or is expected to be awarded, and a statement acknowledging that by submitting to the AAA Competitive Manuscript Award, the paper meets the criteria to be submitted to The Accounting Review, including that the paper has not been previously rejected from The Accounting Review, is not in the review process at a journal other than The Accounting Review, and has not been previously published. Note that papers currently in the review process at The Accounting Review are eligible.
- Please attach an electronic copy the manuscript and cover letter to an email and send to Barbara Gutierrez, Professional Staff Liaison, at awards@aaahq.org with "Competitive Manuscript Award" in the subject line of your email.
- Upon receipt of your nomination, you will receive an acknowledgment message from Barbara Gutierrez, Professional Staff Liaison.
- All documents submitted in support of your nomination become the property of the American Accounting Association.
- Deadline: January 31st (11:59 pm Eastern Time).
Award Presentation
- The recipient(s) will receive an award at the AAA Annual Meeting.
- The recipient(s) will be announced on the AAA website and in multi-topic mass emails.