Publication in Accounting: CAPES standards and the availability of publication slots

The difficulty faced by Accounting researchers in publishing their research is increasing as a result, among other factors, of the standards established for publication in scholarly journals by CAPES, the Brazilian government agency responsible for accreditation of graduate programs. This study compares publication standards set by CAPES with publication slots available in Accounting journals during the evaluation period of 2007-2009. Fifty-six national journals were identified that publish scholarly articles in the field of Accounting. The number of articles published by the respective journals during the period of interest was multiplied by the ranking of the journal in the QUALIS system. This resulted in the total number of points offered by these journals during the period. Then the number of faculty linked to each graduate program in Accounting was multiplied by the 150 points needed over the three-year period to qualify the program as having Very Good performance. Results show that for every faculty member to achieve full points, a total of 37,650 points would have been necessary; but only 23,490 were actually offered by the journals.