jar-workflow

Journal of Accounting Research Workflow (jar-workflow)

Overview

This is the router. It does not replace any specialized skill; it tells you which jar- skill to use right now* for your JAR manuscript.

Default assumption: unless the user says otherwise, treat the target as the Journal of Accounting Research (JAR) — one of the "top three" accounting journals, founded in 1963, sponsored by the Chookaszian Accounting Research Center at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and published with Wiley-Blackwell (five issues a year). JAR publishes original research in all areas of accounting drawing on finance, economics, statistics, psychology, and sociology, using analytical, empirical-archival, experimental, and field-study methods. Its defining identity is rigorous empirical-archival capital-markets research in the Ball-Brown lineage. The non-negotiable bar: a clean identification strategy answering a question that matters for how accounting information is produced, disclosed, audited, or used in markets — credible causal inference and an economic story weigh as heavily as a sound regression.

Governance is by a panel of Senior Editors (Berger, Costello, Hail, Nikolaev, Sapra, van Lent, Wittenberg Moerman), not a single editor-in-chief; Editorial Manager Lisa M. Heiberger. Fees, the conference theme, and the masthead change — verify on the Chookaszian Center JAR pages. Three things make JAR distinctive: a tiered submission fee ($750/$500/$50), a mandatory data-and-code sharing policy, and the Ray Ball JAR Annual Conference with its June conference issue. Impact factor (~4.9, 2023) is approximate.

When to trigger

• "What should I do next?" with a half-built JAR manuscript
• You have an archival result but no clean identification or economic story
• A referee pushes on endogeneity, the channel, or "what do we learn about accounting?"
• You received a JAR decision letter (R&R or reject) and need to switch into response mode
• You are weighing the Registered Reports track or a Ray Ball Conference submission

Routing table

Current symptom	Next skill
Idea is vague; unsure it is a real accounting question or JAR-fit	jar-topic-selection
No economic mechanism; predictions are atheoretical correlations	jar-theory-development
Front end reads as gap-spotting; the accounting literature not engaged	jar-literature-positioning
Design/identification may not support the causal claim	jar-methods
Have data; unsure about clustering, endogeneity, measurement of constructs	jar-data-analysis
Results exist but "so what for accounting" is thin	jar-contribution-framing
Tables/figures cluttered, off house style, or not self-explanatory	jar-tables-figures
Prose buries the research design and the economic argument	jar-writing-style
Ready to submit; need the Research Exchange + fee + data/code preflight	jar-submission
Want to understand JAR review, fees, or the conference/RR tracks	jar-review-process
Received an R&R; need to plan revisions and draft the response	jar-rebuttal

Default order

1. jar-topic-selection — lock an accounting question with a credible setting and JAR fit
2. jar-theory-development — build the economic mechanism and sign the predictions
3. jar-literature-positioning — engage the accounting conversation; state the marginal contribution
4. jar-methods — choose the identification strategy and the sample/setting
5. jar-data-analysis — clustering, endogeneity, construct measurement, robustness
6. jar-contribution-framing — turn the estimate into a contribution to accounting knowledge
7. jar-tables-figures — finalize the main descriptive/results/identification exhibits
8. jar-writing-style — full-manuscript prose polish (design-forward, economically literate)
9. jar-submission — Research Exchange preflight (anonymization, fee, data-and-code package)
10. jar-review-process — set expectations for the editor-panel, multi-round process
11. jar-rebuttal — after an R&R, revise then draft the point-by-point response

jar-tables-figures and jar-writing-style are late-stage polish. Do not invoke them while identification or the economic story is still unsettled.

Decision shortcuts

• "Archival result, treatment looks endogenous" → jar-methods then jar-data-analysis
• "Two-way clustering vs. firm-only?" → jar-data-analysis
• "Referee says the channel is unidentified" → jar-theory-development then jar-methods
• "High-outcome-risk study with new data collection" → consider Registered Reports via jar-review-process
• "Targeting the Ray Ball Conference" → jar-review-process (deadline, eligibility) then the design skills
• "Submitting next week" → jar-submission (fee within a week; data/code package)
• "Got an R&R from the editor panel" → jar-review-process then jar-rebuttal

Difference vs. TAR / JAE / RAST / CAR stacks

• JAR: Chicago Booth (Chookaszian Center) / Wiley; empirical-archival capital-markets identity; requires data-and-code sharing; tiered fee; Ray Ball Conference; Registered Reports. Identification + economic story weighted heavily.
• The Accounting Review (TAR): American Accounting Association journal; broad scope; no equivalent mandatory replication-hosting infrastructure.
• Journal of Accounting & Economics (JAE): Elsevier; positive/economics-based, contracting and disclosure; encourages rather than requires code sharing.
• Review of Accounting Studies (RAST) / Contemporary Accounting Research (CAR): strong empirical outlets with their own scopes and norms.

If your paper is purely a methods/statistics contribution with no accounting question, or has no identification leverage, JAR is likely the wrong venue.

Anti-patterns

• Do not skip jar-theory-development and present a regression with no economic channel.
• Do not let jar-tables-figures beautify exhibits before identification is settled.
• Do not start jar-submission without the runnable data-and-code package the policy requires.
• Do not let jar-rebuttal draft a response before the manuscript is actually revised.