An Examination of Ethical Research Conduct by Experienced and Novice Accounting Academics

We conducted a survey of experienced researchers (members of certain AAA journal editorial boards) and novice researchers (participants of three recent AAA New Faculty Consortia) regarding their evaluations of 30 research behaviors. The behaviors covered co‐authorship issues, submission/streaming issues, data issues, reporting/reference/citation issues, and conduct with peer issues. Participants were asked to evaluate these behaviors as to their appropriateness, perceived occurrence, and firsthand knowledge. Seventy experienced researchers and 106 novice researchers participated by completing the questionnaire. We found a great deal of consistency between experienced and novice researchers in the evaluations of the behaviors. However, we found that many of the behaviors considered inappropriate were believed to occur in accounting research. Further, there was a surprising degree of firsthand knowledge that these behaviors occur. We found that the appropriateness rating was related to firsthand knowledge.