Have you ever dreamed of becoming a Full Professor of Accounting in Spain? Well, think twice.

This Research analyses the convenience and consequences of the ANECA (National Agency for the Assessment of Quality and Accreditation) criteria for the assessment of the research performed by accounting academics in Spain. The researchers focus on the level for the accreditation of Full Professor, based on the set of criteria disclosed by the autonomous organization ANECA, whose main objective is to contribute to the improvement of the quality of the higher education system through the evaluation, certification and accreditation of teaching, faculty members and institutions. The paper brings out also the publication patterns and possibilities of the accounting scholars in Spain to bring to light the extraordinary difficulties for publication in the accounting field in Spain, which have consequences for the development of an academic career and for the generation of a research meeting the Spanish context and necessities.

The authors find that Accounting scholars have more difficulties for publication than their counterparts in adjacent fields of knowledge. Most of the accounting academics affiliated to Spanish institutions than have succeeded in publishing in the top international accounting journals co-authored their articles with foreign authors, mainly affiliated to USA or UK institutions, and/or focused their research on international setting and topics. The Spanish regulation for accreditation stresses this pattern.

This situation may have serious consequences for the survival of the accounting discipline in Spain and for the research on topics focused on Spanish problems.

This article was published in SSRN.

For more information, please visit the following link: A critical approach to the evaluation of the quality of accounting research in the Spanish university system and its implications