The movie Yesterday made me think a little about Alternative Realities, which under some versions of Physic’s String Theory are more than possible so this is not the ravings of a mad man. What if we woke up in the mid-1970’s and Gondes and Dopuch 1974 had never been written? Instead of being held back for 25 or more years behavioural financial accounting research would have developed, well in advance of behavioural finance. Instead of accounting researchers slowly moving to catch up, financial accounting behavioural research would have lead the way! Just Imagine . . .

So from sunny Kingston, the beat goes on. I am taking a brief sabbatical (July 1 to December 31) to allow me to catch up on research, to continue to provide high quality service to BRIA authors and to understand deeper the data analytics revolution and blockchain developments on accounting and auditing. I continue to enjoy the privilege of being the Smith Chair of Accounting and Auditing at the Smith School of Business, one of the most innovative business schools in the world. Kingston is lovelier than usual in the summer s drop in if you are in the ‘hood! Looking forward to many more years at Queen’s University at Kingston, founded by Royal Charter in 1843! ( so says the official website)

Happy Canada Day (July 1) to my country and condolences to all Americans who wish they were in Canada as they celebrate their separation from the “land of peace order and good government” on their Independence Day (July 4)! 😇

For those authors who have to wait until their paper appears on paper for it to count, the American Accounting Association has been having a tough time delivering this past year.

What seems to have happened is no Plan B was in place when their publisher/printer ran into the financial wall last June! From there on in it was all hands on deck to try to get Journal issues out. The latest late issue being the May TAR issue; coming out in mid-June.

This has resulted in lots of carry on issues with the section journals, when you cannot get the big guy out the door on a timely manner! Manuscripts are taking a long time to get to early views, a long time to proof stage and so on!

I get lots of complaints about this but most authors are understanding once they hear about the problem. (Not so understanding about the lack of a Plan B but they realize that is on the AAA Executive, not the pubs folks, the section leadership and those of us on the cutting edge, the Senior Editors).

But it would be nice if someone at the AAA Exec level owned up to the problem, took responsibility, and communicated clearly when we can spect the backlog to be caught up on!

In the mean time we Editors carry on . . . . . .

The American Accounting Association announced its annual orgy of awards (sorry but I liked the alliteration) last week. At the Association level, as usual, almost all the research awards were for capital markets archival research. They were well deserved without a doubt, indeed I have cited some of them extensively, but it makes us look like finance junior with all the focus on market reaction.

But as I read the list for a second time I noted the Wildman Medal had been awarded to Emily E. Griffith, University of Wisconsin-Madison, J. S. Hammersley, The University of Georgia and K. Kadous, Emory University for

“Audits of Complex Estimates as Verification of Management Numbers: How Institutional Pressures Shape Practice.” Contemporary Accounting Research, Fall 2015, Volume 32, No. 3, pp. 833-863.

I find it interesting that over the years the Wildman Medal has been awarded to field research and field researchers as one looks back over the history of the award! Funny what practice thinks is influential research compared to what gets the more conventional notable, Distinguished and seminal awards!