The purpose of this paper is to provide an introduction to a special issue commemorating the 25th anniversary of the publication of Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal (AAAJ).
The paper provides the background to the special issue and a summary of the articles appearing across the following pages. It features five retrospective/prospective essays by the guest editors of selected special issues, published between 1991 and 1997 within the first ten volumes of AAAJ.
The guest editors of selected special issues have endeavoured to identify and assess the impacts of the issues they edited in shaping future developments in the literature and to consider issues for future research developments in those fields.
This paper serves as a selected commentary and is not a substitute for carefully reading each of the essays published. Each individual paper provides a comprehensive review of developments in the relevant literature and of the possibilities for future research developments within the theme addressed.
The paper outlines a novel approach to the development of the AAAJ special issue which may gain wider acceptance or provide a basis for the further development of approaches to the production of other special issues.
