Abstract
This study critically evaluates research published byContemporary Accounting Research(CAR)between 1984 and 2021 using bibliometric analysis. We examine the following: (i)CAR’s publica-tion quality and the factors associated with its citations and (ii)CAR’s scope regarding researchdiversity, methods, authors geographical dispersion, and collaborative networks. The methodologypermits observation offiner collaboration details and research patterns not apparent by simply cate-gorizing the data. We use tools such as performance analysis, coauthorship analysis, bibliographiccoupling, and regression analysis. The bibliometric analysis shows improvement inCAR’sCiteScore and source-normalized impact per paper over time, consistent with publishing high-quality research. Our analysis reveals that authors’geographical affiliations, research subject areas,and research methods are not systematically associated with citations across our various subsam-ples. A notable exception is that research on audit topics generates more citations than studiesexaminingfinancial accounting topics. Other factors significantly and positively associated withcitations include article age, article length, number of authors, order of author names, and numberof references. We also show thatCARhas become more diverse regarding author affiliations, sub-ject areas, and research methods than most leading accounting journals. OnlyAccounting, Organi-zations and Societyemerges as more diverse, thereby serving as a benchmark forCARin thefuture.CARshould consider focusing on high-interest areas to boost citations and tightening itsacceptance criteria.