A glimpse into the bibliography/articles of Accounting reveals that for many years there has been an expansion of what accountants perceive as appropriate research topics.

In the 1950s and 1960s, primary emphasis was placed on issues of appropriate cost allocation methods and the suitable timing for revenue recognition.

Since the early 1970s, the prevailing view appears to have been that anything influenced by accounting and anything that affects accounting is a suitable research issue. Thus, the number of topics considered appropriate for accounting research has greatly expanded since then.

Alongside this expansion of research topics, there has been an expansion of research methods used by accounting researchers. Many of these new methods are borrowed from other scientific disciplines and are now applied to accounting problems.