Rankings can reveal research strength, but only after you understand what each system counts. Use them to build questions and a long list—not to choose a doctoral program by position alone.
BYU Accounting Rankings
The BYU Accounting Research Rankings let readers compare institutions, Ph.D. programs, and individual faculty across topics, methods, and publication windows. Read the site's current methodology before interpreting or comparing results.
UT Dallas Rankings
The UT Dallas Top 100 tracks research published in 24 selected business journals and attributes articles using author affiliations. It covers all business disciplines, so it answers a different question from an accounting-specific ranking.
How to read a ranking — and how not to
Both systems measure research output. Neither measures teaching quality, advising quality, placement success, or whether you would be happy there. A program can rank highly because of a handful of extremely productive faculty and still be a poor fit if none of them work on what interests you or is taking students.
Three things worth understanding about the numbers:
- Different rankings answer different questions. Some measure the current faculty's publications; others credit doctoral programs for the later productivity of their graduates.
- The journal set matters. A ranking of all business disciplines may represent accounting with only a few journals, while an accounting-specific tool can cover more topics and methods.
- Methodologies change. Read the current methodology and date range on the ranking site before interpreting a result.
Use rankings to build a long list and to sanity-check your impressions. Use fit, methodology and placement to build the short one.
The journal lists behind the rankings
Rankings are only as meaningful as the journals they count. Broader business-school lists can be useful for understanding how an institution evaluates research, but they are not substitutes for reading faculty work and examining placements. Current lists are available from:
Which list a school uses, and what "counts" for tenure there, varies widely. It is a fair question to ask on a campus visit.