2026 Best Paper Awards

PURPOSE:
The Accounting Horizons and Issues in Accounting Education Best Paper Awards are presented annually. The awards are given for the best paper published each calendar year for either publication.

ELIGIBILITY:
All papers appearing in Accounting Horizons and Issues in Accounting Education in 2025, except for editorials written by the editor and committee reports, are eligible.

SELECTION OF TOP 5 PAPERS:

Editors of each journal, Accounting Horizons and Issues in Accounting Education, vote for their top five papers published in the preceding calendar year.
Editors submit their selections directly to the American Accounting Association (AAA) staff, who tally the votes.
Editors are not permitted to vote to select any paper on which they are listed as a coauthor.
The five papers receiving the most votes appear on the final ballot forwarded to AAA members for voting.

VOTING PROCESS:

The ballot forwarded to AAA members for voting will include the title, authors and abstract of each of the top five papers selected by the Editors of each journal.
Award recipients are then selected by online voting, which is open to all members of the AAA.
Each paper’s total vote count will be reduced by the number of its authors. This adjustment prevents papers with more authors from having an unfair advantage due to potentially larger voting networks.
Online voting is scheduled in the spring of each year and will be announced via mass emails and the AAA website.

PRESENTATION OF AWARD:

The recipient(s) of the Accounting Horizons Best Paper Award and the recipient(s) of the Issues in Accounting Education Best Paper Award will receive an award and $2,500 at the AAA Annual Meeting. If there are multiple recipients for each Best Paper Award, the amount is divided evenly.

The recipient(s) will announced on the AAA website and in multi-topic mass emails.