Editorial

The rate of submission continues to increase, so I welcome two colleagues to the ranks of associate editor, Associate Professor Belinda Luke and Dr Tracy Artiach. Belinda and Tracy join Associate Professors Jacquelyn Humphrey and Jacqueline Birt and Dr Andrew West as Associate editors. I also congratulate my colleagues Jacquelyn, Jacqueline and Belinda on attaining the position of Associate Professor, and my co-editor Professor Reza Monem on his promotion to full chair.

Dr Tracy Artiach PhD (UQ), BBus (Hons) (USQ), BBus (USQ), CPA (University of Queensland, Australia). Dr Tracy Artiach is a senior lecturer in the Accounting discipline at UQ Business School, The University of Queensland, Australia. Her research is in the area of financial accounting including accounting standards, accounting measurement, disclosure and information for the capital markets. Tracy has published in well-regarded journals: Energy Economics; Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal; Australian Journal Management; and Accounting and Finance.

Associate Professor Belinda Luke PhD (AUT), MBus (AUT). Associate Professor Belinda Luke is in the School of Accountancy at QUT Business School. Belinda’s research interests include accountability and performance reporting in third sector organisations. She held prior academic positions in New Zealand and has professional experience as a tax manager for PricewaterhouseCoopers in Australia, Ukraine, Papua New Guinea and China.

Turning now to our editorial advisory board, we wish Professor David Emanuel and Professor Graeme Wines well in their impending retirement and thank them for their years of service to the Journal as editorial board member, author and reviewer. I have benefitted personally from their wise counsel.

Congratulations to Professor Sue Wright and Professor Keryn Chalmers, who have attained elevated positions as chair at Newcastle Business School, Newcastle University (Australia) and Dean at Swinburne Business School, Swinburne University of Technology, respectively. Reza and I were delighted to have the opportunity to host a visit by Professor Stephen Zeff to our respective schools in Brisbane, Australia, last October.

We welcome on Board three new members to the editorial advisory board:

• Associate Professor Martina Linnenluecke, University of Queensland, Australia;

• Professor John Sands, University of Southern Queensland, Australia; and

• Professor Carla Wilkin, Monash University, Australia.

With their expertise and considerable research reputations in environmental finance, management accounting and information systems respectively, they add to the breadth and depth of the editorial board’s collective pool of talent.

This issue of the Journal heralds the beginning of the special series on pitching research letters. Our editorial board member, Professor Robert Faff, has become renowned for his “Pitching Research” method as an exciting way to encourage the efficient and effective dissemination of research ideas. The Journal wishes to encourage this scholarship, and last July, offered emerging scholars the opportunity to publish their pitching research letter (PRL) in a scholarly refereed journal with the Call for Papers for Pitching Research. Emerging researchers were invited to complete a research “pitch” and write a brief discussion of their pitch according to a prescribed “letter” format. This unique opportunity is designed to provide a range of developmental objectives:

• serve as an important exercise for emerging researchers, allowing them to explain their research plans clearly and succinctly;

• allow them to publicly “stake a claim” over a specific research question; and

• offer emerging researchers a meaningful publication experience.

We are pleased to publish the first two PRLs of the series for 2017:

1. Dr Gladys Lee (The University of Melbourne) and Dr Michael Turner (The University of Queensland), Do Government Administered Financial Rewards Undermine Firms’ Internal Whistle-Blowing Systems? A Pitch.

2. Dr Thu Phuong Truong (Victoria University of Wellington) and Dr Nick Nguyen (Massey University), Regulatory Enforcement, Financial Reporting Quality and Investment Efficiency: A Pitch.

Thank you to the authors and panel of reviewers who facilitated a quick turn around on the submissions so that we can publish in 2017; thanks to Professor Robert Faff for supporting this initiative.

Dr Acklesh Prasad

I have asked Professor Peter Green to write a tribute on the occasion of the sudden passing of our colleague and friend from the QUT Business School, Dr Acklesh Prasad. At the time of his passing (22.6.16), Dr Prasad was a Senior Lecturer in the School of Accountancy, QUT Business School, Brisbane, Australia. Acklesh’s teaching and research interests were in the area of information systems, and he was a great supporter of the Accounting Research Journal, including acting as reviewer and published author: Prasad et al., (2016).

It is my very great honour to be asked by his colleagues and family to say a few words of tribute about my friend and colleague, Acklesh.

I have known Acklesh personally and professionally since about 2006. I was at a conference at the University of Melbourne and I heard a young graduate from the University of the South Pacific present the findings from his masters’ research. It was a very impressive presentation. It was obvious at that time that this young academic, Acklesh, was very intelligent and very capable. I made myself known to him and we talked.

That was a very lucky conversation for me. Acklesh subsequently decided to apply to the University of Queensland Business School (where I was working at the time) to undertake his PhD. When I received the application, I encouraged my colleague, Dr Jon Heales, to join me in supervising Acklesh. Jon didn’t need much convincing. He was also impressed with Acklesh’s record and application immediately.

Acklesh undertook his PhD work with gusto. He was just so organised, motivated and capable. You just had to show him the way and then get out of his road! He completed his PhD in 2009 in record time. He was an absolute “dream supervision”.

Also, during his time with us at the University of Queensland Business School, he tutored and lectured casually in my Accounting Information Systems undergraduate and postgraduate courses. He presented his classes in a challenging, interesting and relevant manner for students. This fact was reflected in the consistently strong feedback he received from students.

Also, during this time, we engaged Acklesh as a research assistant with us on various projects. It was through this work and his PhD studies that he demonstrated his quickly developing talent as a high-quality researcher. His contributions to the projects were marked and obvious. His keen, incisive intellect coupled with a strong work ethic equipped him well for a future career in research and academia.

Acklesh returned to Fiji in 2010 where he took up a position again at the University of the South Pacific. Unfortunately, the tyranny of distance meant that he and I lost some contact during this time. I know though that during this time Acklesh’s reputation as a strong tertiary teacher was enhanced due to the innovations and improvements that he introduced through his teaching. However, the desire to continue his research became too strong after a period of time. He applied for, and was offered, a teaching and research lectureship at QUT (the Queensland University of Technology) in 2012 as part of its Early Career Academic Researcher program.

I know he was very happy in this appointment and he was able to resume his previous research collaborations particularly in conjunction with Jon and myself. Again, Acklesh was boundless in his energy and the fervour with which he got back into research and publishing.

I was able to observe him at much closer quarters when I joined the QUT as head of his School in 2014. Acklesh was a great support to me and the School. No assignment was too hard, and he always undertook each assignment with consummate professionalism and diligence. You could trust that the work would be done completely and competently. In 2015, he took over the position of Higher Degree Research coordinator for the School. His passion for research and genuine desire to help young research students made him a good candidate for this position. He performed the tasks of that position in a very compassionate and comprehensive way. As testimony to the respect and concern with which he handled the work of that position, many of the School’s HDR students attended his memorial service. I thank them for their attendance.

It was also during this time that I was able to observe other attributes about Acklesh. He lived for his family and “the boys”. I met the boys, Nishil and Aarav, several times when Acklesh bought them into his office during School holidays or after School. It was obvious that they were the apple of his eye. I know that he was over the moon with pride when Nishil achieved a scholarship to attend Brisbane Boys College for secondary school.

Over the past couple of years, Acklesh had focused on keeping himself fit. He regularly used to be seen in his running clothes leaving work in the city to jog out to the western suburbs. Also, he was an avid fun run participant. Bridge to Brisbane, QUT Classic, he got into them all. Indeed, he had a website that showed him all the park fun runs that he could participate in around the metropolitan area. I ran in the 2014 QUT Classic fun run – I only did the 5 km run. We started before those participants who were doing the 10 km run. Acklesh was doing the 10 km run of course. I can still remember him sailing past me, even though he had started sometime after me. He approached the fitness regime with his usual zeal. As his wife Gurdeep reminded me recently, he always had to be active – he couldn’t sit still. Even when he got home late from work, he would be out cleaning the pool or performing some needed task around the house.

Acklesh was a very honest, trustworthy and competent colleague who was a pleasure to work with. But much more than that, he was not only my student, colleague and co-researcher, I am proud to say he was my friend. Vale Acklesh.