UF’s Demski is ranked No. 1 in accounting literature

Gainesville, Fla. – A new working paper authored by Jean L. Heck of Saint Joseph’s University has named Joel Demski, Frederick E. Fisher Eminent Scholar in Accounting, the most prolific author in the accounting literature of the past half-century (1959-2008). Heck calls the authors identified in the study “truly remarkable.” Even more remarkable: Demski was the number one author in two analyses, one of more than 600 published in five leading accounting journals, and a second of a similar number of authors published in twenty-five core journals examined.

The 626 authors named as “Most Frequent Appearing Authors in Five Leading Accounting Journals” have at least five appearances, representing less than 15 percent (14.7) of all authors who have published in these journals. Demski was credited with 27.5 appearances. Fourteen appearances launch authors into approximately the top 2 percent, with 18 appearances required for approximately the top 1 percent.

In the study of the 620 authors named to the list of “Most Frequent Appearing Authors in 25 Core Accounting Journals,” Desmki was credited with 32.66 appearances. Those who have at least 10 appearances represent about 6 percent of all authors who have published in these journals. Authors with about 22 appearances rank in the top 1 percent.

A comparison of “Five Leading Accounting Journals” rankings with “25 Core Accounting Journals” rankings reveals that Demski, number one in both data sets, had 42 of his 52 articles appear in the top five journals.

Heck says these accounting scholars represent a small minority of thousands of authors during the half century 1959 to 2008, and that this examination provides hard data for the first time on research productivity in accounting literature. The list of prolific authors also provides many in the field of accounting, he says, with data to compare their own performance—that of the “mere mortals among us”—with these “overachievers.”