PhD in Accounting

The following does not preclude a student from completing a traditional dissertation.

The following guidelines relate to the School of Accountancy requirements relating to a three-paper dissertation. The following requirement is per the University of Alabama Graduate School: Journal Format. A “journal-format” dissertation or thesis is acceptable. Such a dissertation or thesis simply follows the format of a particular journal in which the student and advisor want to publish the manuscript. To prepare a journal-format dissertation or thesis, the student uses the journal’s “information for authors” or similarly titled guidelines in conjunction with the Graduate School’s Student Guide to Preparing Electronic Theses and Dissertations. At this point, the accounting journals do not meet the minimum formatting requirements of the graduate school. Therefore, this format is not permissible at this point in time.

Article-style dissertations must be based on research completed while the student is enrolled at The University of Alabama. For each article used, the student must be the first author, or equivalent, as defined by the discipline. The dissertation must be the student’s original idea. It must be a unified work and include a sequence of articles of publishable quality around a theme, with a comprehensive review of the literature that demonstrates an in-depth understanding of the unifying framework.

There will be one introductory section to describe the studies, tell how they are related, and explain their significance. There will be connecting language to bridge each study to the next. There also will be a section that serves as a summary making clear the importance of the studies, integrating the major findings, and discussing the implications for the overall topic. These components do not have to be separate sections or chapters. They may be parts of the manuscripts or may be accomplished in an abstract.

See the UA Graduate School webpage for additional guidance.

Accountancy-specific Dissertation Guidelines

The following are additional guidelines per the School of Accountancy.

1. A student MAY elect to complete an article-style dissertation rather than the traditional dissertation. This decision should only be undertaken with the guidance of the student’s dissertation advisor. In order for a student to successfully complete this approach, the student will need to begin working towards a three-paper dissertation during the first year of the PhD program. Note that it is the prerogative of the dissertation advisor as to whether or not the advisor will allow one of their students to complete an article style dissertation.
2. The first and second-year papers, as presented, are not eligible to be used in the dissertation.
3. One literature review (in the Journal of Accounting Literature format) can be used as one of the three essays. Therefore, an extension of a first year, or a second-year paper into a literature review (in the Journal of Accounting Literature format) will qualify as one of the three essays.
4. A material extension of the first and the second year paper will qualify as essays in a three-paper dissertation, subject to three requirements being met. First, the student’s advisor must approve the revision prior to beginning the extension. Second, the extension results in substantial and meaningful changes to the first or second-year paper. For example, an extension of a second-year paper where subjects are changed (such as from students to CPAs) or data sources are changed (such as from IBES to FirstCall) would not qualify as a substantial and meaningful change. Finally, if a first or second-year paper has been extended into a literature review, and is included in the three essays, it is not eligible to be included in the three essays in any other form.
5. A study may be co-authored with faculty. Refer to the UA guidelines above for additional guidance.
6. When several PhD students are co-authors on a project that is to be used as part of a three-paper dissertation, the students should agree on which student was the lead or “first author”. In our field, “first author” means taking a significant role in hypothesis development, instrument design, data gathering and analysis, and writing.
7. The format of both the proposal and dissertation defense will be determined by the student’s advisor and PhD Committee. The oral defense can range from an in-depth discussion of one paper to a presentation of all three papers.
8. A study may be used in only one dissertation.
9. We advise (STRONGLY recommend) students completing a three-paper dissertation to brown-bag all three papers separately in advance of the dissertation proposal.