Exploring Accounting Research Topic Evolution: An Unsupervised Machine Learning Approach

This study explores the evolution of accounting research by utilizing an unsupervised machine learning approach. We aim to identify the latent topics of accounting from the 1980s up to 2018, the dynamics and emerging topics of accounting research, and the economic reasons behind those changes. First...

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Main Authors: Cao, June, Gu, Z., Hasan, I.
Format: Journal Article
Published: American Accounting Association 2023
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/93445
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author Cao, June
Gu, Z.
Hasan, I.
author_facet Cao, June
Gu, Z.
Hasan, I.
author_sort Cao, June
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description This study explores the evolution of accounting research by utilizing an unsupervised machine learning approach. We aim to identify the latent topics of accounting from the 1980s up to 2018, the dynamics and emerging topics of accounting research, and the economic reasons behind those changes. First, based on 23,220 articles from 46 accounting journals, we identify 55 topics using the latent Dirichlet allocation model. To illustrate the connection between topics, we use HistCite to generate a citation map along a timeline. The citation clusters demonstrate the “tribalism” phenomenon in accounting research. We then implement the dynamic topic model to reveal the dynamics of topics to show changes in accounting research. The emerging research trends are identified from the topic analytics. We further explore the economic reasons and in-depth insights into the topic evolution, indicating the economic development embeddedness nature of accounting research.
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format Journal Article
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institution Curtin University Malaysia
institution_category Local University
last_indexed 2025-11-14T11:39:58Z
publishDate 2023
publisher American Accounting Association
recordtype eprints
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spelling curtin-20.500.11937-934452023-10-25T07:30:39Z Exploring Accounting Research Topic Evolution: An Unsupervised Machine Learning Approach Cao, June Gu, Z. Hasan, I. This study explores the evolution of accounting research by utilizing an unsupervised machine learning approach. We aim to identify the latent topics of accounting from the 1980s up to 2018, the dynamics and emerging topics of accounting research, and the economic reasons behind those changes. First, based on 23,220 articles from 46 accounting journals, we identify 55 topics using the latent Dirichlet allocation model. To illustrate the connection between topics, we use HistCite to generate a citation map along a timeline. The citation clusters demonstrate the “tribalism” phenomenon in accounting research. We then implement the dynamic topic model to reveal the dynamics of topics to show changes in accounting research. The emerging research trends are identified from the topic analytics. We further explore the economic reasons and in-depth insights into the topic evolution, indicating the economic development embeddedness nature of accounting research. 2023 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/93445 10.2308/JIAR-2021-073 American Accounting Association restricted
spellingShingle Cao, June
Gu, Z.
Hasan, I.
Exploring Accounting Research Topic Evolution: An Unsupervised Machine Learning Approach
title Exploring Accounting Research Topic Evolution: An Unsupervised Machine Learning Approach
title_full Exploring Accounting Research Topic Evolution: An Unsupervised Machine Learning Approach
title_fullStr Exploring Accounting Research Topic Evolution: An Unsupervised Machine Learning Approach
title_full_unstemmed Exploring Accounting Research Topic Evolution: An Unsupervised Machine Learning Approach
title_short Exploring Accounting Research Topic Evolution: An Unsupervised Machine Learning Approach
title_sort exploring accounting research topic evolution: an unsupervised machine learning approach
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/93445