Subject Guides - Accounting

Accounting

Below are some suggested databases for Accounting.

Databases

Core Databases

Business Insights Essentials (Gale)

Extensive reference content from Gale’s core business collection; easy-to-use company fundamentals and investment research reports; industry rankings, profiles, market share data, company histories, and more.

Canadian Business & Current Affairs Database (ProQuest)

CBCA Complete is a current events database combining content from four subsets (Business, Current Events, Education, and Reference).

Canadian Newsstream

This full text database includes the complete available electronic backfile for most newspapers, providing full access to the articles, columns, editorials, and features. Some backfiles date as far back as the late 1970s and 1980s. Canadian Newsstand content is updated daily so researchers always have timely access to new information

EBSCOHost Business Source Complete

Business Source Complete is the world’s definitive scholarly business database, providing the leading collection of bibliographic and full text content. Additional full text, non-journal content includes financial data, books, monographs, major reference works, book digests, conference proceedings, case studies, investment research reports, industry reports, market research reports, country reports, company profiles, SWOT analyses and more.

Multidisciplinary Databases

Covering all major academic disciplines, Academic Search Elite is a rich resource spanning a broad stretch of academic subjects with thousands of full-text journals and abstracted and indexed journals.

Journals

Core Journals

The Accounting Review

The Accounting Review, published since 1926, is the premier journal for publishing articles reporting the results of accounting research and explaining and illustrating related research methodology. It publishes six issues per year in January, March, May, July, September, and November and is an A* journal indexed in Scopus and SSCI.

Journal of Accounting Research

The Journal of Accounting Research is a general-interest accounting journal. It publishes original research in all areas of accounting and related fields that utilizes tools from basic disciplines such as economics, statistics, psychology, and sociology. This research typically uses analytical, empirical archival, experimental, and field study methods and addresses economic questions, external and internal, in accounting, auditing, disclosure, financial reporting, taxation, and information as well as related fields such as corporate finance, investments, capital markets, law, contracting, and information economics.

Contemporary accounting research : A journal of the Canadian Academic Accounting Association

The premier research journal of the CAAA, CAR reflects the worldwide intellectual diversity in accounting research. Ranked on the FT 50 list of top business journals and ranked fourth on Google Scholar’s list of top accounting journalsCAR retained its A* rating on the Australian Business Deans Council Journal Quality List in 2019CAR‘s 2020 two-year Impact Factor is 3.543, and its 2020 CiteScore is 4.30.

Reference Resources

Reference Resources

Dictionaries

The Blackwell encyclopaedia dictionary of accounting

Print resource: REF HF5621 .B54 1998
 

Dictionary of accounting terms

Print resource: REF HF5621 .S54 2000

Encyclopedias

The Blackwell encyclopaedia of management: Accounting

Print resource: REF HF5621 .B53 2005
 

Encyclopaedia of Business

Print resource: REF HF1001 .E466 200

Books

Books

Books

Below you will find a listing of the Library of Congress call ranges associated with Accounting, as well as some suggested subjects and keywords that can be used when searching the library catalogue

Physical Collections

HF 1-6182: Commerce

HF 5601-5689: Accounting. Bookkeeping.

HG 1- 9999: Finance

HJ 9-9940: Public Finance

Subjects

Managerial Accounting

Cost Accounting

Accountants – Professional Ethics

Accountants — Standards

Keywords

Accounting Management

Cost Analysis

Accounting Ethics

Standards

Web Resources

Web Resources

Web Resources

CPA Virtual Learning Resources 

A list of resources provided by the Chartered Professional Accountants Canada that include reading material, podcasts, webinars, and training resources.

Government of Canada Tax Resources

Information from the Government of Canada regarding various tax information that includes guides and explanations of various topics in accounting for individuals, businesses, charities, and trusts.

Financial Reporting & Assurance Standards Canada

FRAS website has links to the Accounting Standards Board, Public Sector Accounting Board, and Auditing and Assurance Standards Board.

Research Tips

Research Tips

Research Tips

Searching academic databases and library catalogues isn’t like searching a browser on the web. To get relevant results, searches must be limited to keywords and subjects, and then joined using Boolean terms. 

Below you will find some tips on using Boolean terms with examples tailored to Biology, as well as descriptions of the different types of resources that may be encountered when searching.

Boolean Search Tips

Use Boolean search operators AND, OR, and NOT to combine terms and create more accurate searches. This is particularly helpful when you are searching for resources on broader topics, information in a wide variety of formats, and if you don’t know the exact Library of Congress subject heading or title you are searching for.
 

The Boolean operator AND tells the catalogue to only return results containing all of the specified search terms.
 

budgeting AND “general accounting”
 

Profit AND “loss management” AND accounting
 

The operator AND can be used to combine two or more terms, and can be used in conjunction with other Boolean operators such as truncation and nested terms.
 

Truncation is a method of broadening a search to include variable word endings. Use the * symbol at the end of a word, or the last point of change, to tell the catalogue to search for multiple word endings.
 

Account*

will search for Accountant, Accounting, and Account
 

Strateg*

will search for Strategizing and Strategize.
 

The operator OR will also broaden searches as it tells the catalogue to return results with either or all of terms entered into a query.
 

Cryptocurrency OR Bitcoin

will return results containing both cryptocurrency and bitcoin.
 

Nested Terms is the practice of using brackets, or parenthesis, to determine an order of operations similar to mathematical equations. The catalogue will parse the instructions with the brackets first and then combine the terms with all other operators.
 

Diversification AND (investments OR capital OR assets)
Use quotes around a phrase or concept to indicate that those terms must be kept together when searching.
 

“Generally accepted accounting principles”
 

“balance sheet” AND budget
 

Large sets of search results can be limited using the operator NOT. This operator tells the catalogue to exclude results containing a certain term.
 

“Tax schedules” AND Canada NOT “United States”
From your results, select useful titles and click on the hyperlinked Subjects to find other books and articles on your topic.

 

Primary Articles

Original Research Articles

These are articles reporting on original research and include elements such as a hypothesis, background studies, literature reviews, detailed methodologies, results, interpretations of findings, and discussions on possible implications and future research. Original research articles are typically longer, ranging from 3, 000 – 12, 000 words. These articles are peer reviewed and cite relevant publications from other authors that relate to the research being conducted.

Case Studies

These articles report on the in-depth study of a specific person, group, or event. They are used in a variety of fields such as psychology, medicine, education, political science, and social work in order to seek patterns and causes of behaviour.

Secondary Articles

Literature Reviews

A literature review is a systematic summary and synthesis of what has been published on a topic by accredited scholars and researchers. They frequently convey what knowledge and ideas have been established on a topic, as well as critically assessing the strengths and weaknesses of the field. They will often lack a ‘Methods’ section, though they are often peer reviewed.

Systematic Reviews

These reviews are often designed to provide an exhaustive summary of current evidence in relation to a specific research question, synthesize findings qualitatively or quantitatively, and critically appraise research studies. Systematic reviews use rigorous and transparent review methodologies with the aim of assessing and minimizing bias in the findings.

Meta-analyses

A meta-analysis is a statistical analysis that combines the results of multiple scientific studies addressing the same question. The primary aim is to use statistical analyses to determine common truths. Meta-analyses can be part of a broader systematic review.

Special Articles

Including letters to the editor, correspondences, short communications, editorials, pictorial essays

Tertiary/ Gray Literature

Tertiary/ Gray Literature

Broadly speaking, gray literature is information produced outside of the traditional academic publishing and distribution systems such as academic journals and monographs. Gray literature can include reports, policies, working papers, newsletters, speeches, government documents, and more.
 

As gray literature is produced directly by an individual or organization, for their own either use or wider sharing, it is often more current than academic publications as it is not subject to the delays found in traditional publishing processes.
 

As gray literature does not go through a rigorous peer review process the quality can vary significantly, and it is recommended that these sources be critically evaluated.

Technical reports

These can include scientific studies conducted by Government agencies and NGO which are often not peer reviewed. These types of reports can be found in both scholarly databases and freely on the web.