SMU’s School of Accountancy (SoA) has done well again according to the latest Brigham Young University (BYU) Accounting Research Rankings 2020 (released in February 2021). In addition to claiming the world’s top spot in Citation Ranking for All Publications 2020, SoA has retained Asia’s top spots for “All Areas and All Disciplines Research”, “Archival Research (All Topics)” and “Archival Research (Financial Accounting)”.

The rankings place the School of Accountancy in the league of top universities in the United States, and ahead of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Pennsylvania and Harvard University.

Table 1. BYU Accounting Research: 2020 Citation Rankings

Table 2: BYU Accounting Research Ranking: Main Rankings

Acclaimed as an objective and key ranking to watch for in accounting research, the BYU Accounting Research Rankings are based on award winning research and rankings are based on classifications of peer reviewed articles in 12 accounting journals since 1990, which in turn determines university ranking based on authors’ affiliation. Researchers at BYU measure the intellectual contribution of accounting faculty members at all institutions in the world. They go through publications in the top peer-reviewed accounting journals and rank departments or schools in the recent years based on the number of publications.

A high ranking signals that SMU has the highest research productivity in the top peer-reviewed journals as compared to other peer schools worldwide, particularly in the fields that SMU’s SoA emphasises – archival-based financial accounting research. In particular, SoA’s impressive showing in the Citation Rankings this year represents the strong influence of SoA’s academic research in the field of accounting. As a citation represents a form of acknowledgment that one research paper gives to another existing piece of published research, citation analysis has widely been viewed as a means to assess the research impact generated by that original body of work.

Associate Dean (Research) of School of Accountancy, Lee Kong Chian Professor Zhang Liandong says, “The top citation ranking reflects our faculty’s collective and continuous efforts in conducting accounting research that is of the highest standard.” 

Under the leadership of Lee Kong Chian Chair Professor Cheng Qiang, who has been Dean of the School since July 2015, the SoA’s reputation for its high quality research has grown and it has achieved robust rankings. He says, “We are very proud to be the world’s number one in Citation Rankings for Universities in the BYU rankings this year and this is testament to the high standards of accounting research and education here at SMU’s School of Accountancy. This achievement could not have been without the dedication and commitment of all our faculty members who have been conducting research and constantly publish their work in top tier accounting journals, and I am grateful to have such a hardworking team.”

*Source: BYU Accounting Research Rankings:

http://www.byuaccounting.net/rankings/univrank/rankings.php