Financial Accountability & Management

Edited by:
Irvine Lapsley

Print ISSN: 0267-4424
Online ISSN: 1468-0408
Frequency: Quarterly
Current Volume: 26 / 2010

TopAuthor Guidelines

All manuscripts should be submitted to:

Professor Irvine Lapsley, Editor
Financial Accountability & Management
IPSAR, Department of Accounting and Business Method
University of Edinburgh
William Robertson Building
50 George Square
Edinburgh EH8 9JY
UK

Manuscripts are considered on the understanding that they are original, unpublished works not currently under consideration for publication elsewhere. The receipt of manuscripts will be acknowledged, but the editors and publishers can not accept responsibility for any loss or non-return of manuscripts. Suitable manuscripts will be given anonymous review, following which a copy of any review report will be supplied together with the editor's decision. As regards papers accepted for publication, the author(s) will be asked to transfer copyright to the publishers. Authors are requested to follow Financial Accountability & Management's manuscript and style requirements closely, to minimize later delay or redrafting. In particular, authors should draft their papers and footnotes etc. to avoid identifying themselves directly or indirectly, to help ensure a fair review.

ADVICE FROM THE EDITOR:
No submission or publication fees will be required for papers sent for editorial consideration to Financial Accountability & Management. Also, the Editor will be happy to respond to all enquiries for advice regarding the likely suitability of particular topics, approaches, or types or styles of paper.

MANUSCRIPT REQUIREMENTS:
Manuscripts may be up to 7,000 words in length, or occasionally 8,000 if justifiable, inclusive of reference lists and the space equivalence taken up by illustrations. Submit four photocopies of the manuscript, typed double-spaced (preferably on international-size A4 paper). On the title page include the names, titles and institutional affiliations of the author(s), and also the complete correspondence address of the designated author to whom decisions, proofs, reprint requests and readers' enquiries should be sent. Also provide a running title of fewer than 50 characters and spaces, which will appear on alternate pages in the journal. If the paper is to include any acknowledgements these should be typed as a footnote on the title page. The second page should repeat the full title of the paper (but not the author(s)' names) and contain the Abstract of the paper, not exceeding 100 words for full-length papers, or 60 words for shorter Notes, Comments, Replies or Rejoinders. Immediately below the Abstract, enter the heading Keywords :, followed by a listing of up to five most relevant keywords. The third page may repeat the full title of the paper (but not the author(s)' names) and here the text proper begins. The main text should be followed by any appendices, by any footnotes (which should be kept to the essential minimum, identified in the text by superscript numerals and listed together at the end, not separately at the bottom of each page), and by the list of source references (see below). Tables and figures should be numbered in order of their appearance with Arabic numerals, and each should have a concise descriptive title (and source, where relevant).

REFERENCES:
Citation in the text is by name(s) of author(s), followed by year of publication (and page numbers where relevant) in parentheses. For references authored by more than two contributors use the first author's name and 'et al'. For multiple citations in the same year use a, b, c immediately following the year of publication. The source reference list should be typed in alphabetic order, and in accordance with the following examples of style:

Beattie, V. A. and M. J. Jones (1992a), Certified Research Report 31: The Communication of Information Using Graphs in Corporate Annual Reports , Certified Accountants Educational Trust (London).
_________ ________ (1992b), 'The Use and Abuse of Graphs in Annual Reports: A Theoretical Framework and Empirical Study', Accounting and Business Research (Autumn). pp. 291-303.

Bourne, M. and M. Ezzamel (1986), 'Costing and Budgeting in the National Health Service', Financial Accountability & Management , Vol. 2, No 1 (Sprint), pp. 53-71.

Jones, R. and M. Pendlebury (1992), Public Sector Accounting , 3rd edn. (Pitman).

Propper, C. (1993), 'Quasi-Markets Contracts and Quality in Health and Social Care: The US Experience', in J. Le Grand and W. Barrlett (eds), Quasi Markets and Social Policy (Macmillan, London).

Teece, D. et al. (1990), 'Firm Capabilities, Resources and the Concept of Strategy', CCC Working Paper no 90-8.

REFERENCES IN ARTICLES:
There are several software packages available to help authors manage and format the references and footnotes in their journal article. We recommend the use of a software tool such as EndNote or Reference Manager for reference management and formatting.

EndNote reference styles can be searched for here:
http://www.endnote.com/support/enstyles.asp

Reference Manager reference styles can be searched for here:
http://www.refman.com/support/rmstyles.asp

MATHEMATICAL AND STATISTICAL MATERIAL:
Mathematical notation should be used only when its rigour and precision are essential to comprehension, and authors should explain in narrative format the principal operations performed. Preferably detailed mathematical proofs and statistical support should be relegated to appendices. Any equations used should be numbered sequentially in parentheses positioned flush with the right-hand margin. Whilst the journal does not wish to publish unnecessary mathematical or statistical detail, or specimen questionnaires, supplementary information of these kinds may be of assistance to the editors and reviewers in assessing papers, and authors are invited to submit such supporting evidence as separate documents clearly marked as being for information rather than publication. Authors may include a footnote to inform readers that copies of questionnaires, supporting mathematical/statistical analysis, are available on request from the published address for correspondence.

PROOFS AND OFFPRINTS:
The designated author will receive proofs, which should be corrected and returned within ten days of receipt. This author is responsible for proofreading the manuscript: the editors/publishers are not responsible for any errors not marked by the author on the proofs. Corrections to proofs are limited to rectifying errors: no substantial author's changes can be allowed at this stage unless agreement to pay full costs is communicated with the return of proofs. Similarly, offprints in excess of the twenty-five free copies automatically supplied to the designated author (for sharing among any co-authors) must be ordered at the time of the return of proofs, in accord with the instructions and price list accompanying the proofs.

COMMENTS AND REPLIES:
The journal welcomes non-trivial Comments on papers previously published in FAM. To avoid publishing comments based on misunderstandings, and to obtain Replies quickly so that they can be published simultaneously with the Comments, it is required that draft Comments should be sent to the original authors for their reactions, prior to any formal submission to the editors for publication.

COPYRIGHT TRANSFER AGREEMENT:
Authors will be required to sign a Copyright Transfer Agreement (CTA) for all papers accepted for publication. Signature of the CTA is a condition of publication and papers will not be passed to the publisher for production unless a signed form has been received (US Federal Government employees need to complete the Author Warranty sections, although copyright in such cases does not need to be assigned). After submission authors will retain the right to publish their paper in various media/circumstances (please see the form for further details). To assist authors an appropriate form will be supplied by the editorial office. Alternatively, authors may like to download a copy of the form here. Please return the completed forms as soon as possible, but before publication, to the following address:

Professor Irvine Lapsley, Editor
Financial Accountability & Management
IPSAR, Department of Accounting and Business Method
University of Edinburgh
William Robertson Building
50 George Square
Edinburgh EH8 9JY
UK
Email: I.Lapsley@ed.ac.uk

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