KU School of Business maintains global leadership in accounting research rankings

Accounting faculty at the University of Kansas School of Business have again achieved a No. 1 global ranking for their audit archival research from the past 12 years, according to Brigham Young University’s 2025 Accounting Research Rankings. KU accounting researchers also earned the No. 2 spot for their auditing publications (all methods) from the past 12 years.  

Brigham Young University (BYU) maintains a database that ranks the research productivity of accounting departments worldwide. The rankings, prominently adopted within the discipline, are based on publications in 12 leading accounting journals over three time periods: the most recent six years, the most recent 12 years, and all years since 1990. 

The database categorizes research by accounting topic and research method. Audit archival research refers to studies that examine audit-related questions using objective, publicly available data sources. 

KU accounting researchers have held the No. 1 position in BYU’s audit archival rankings for both the six-year and 12-year categories every year since 2019. In the latest rankings, KU also placed No. 11 globally for archival research across all accounting topics and No. 12 for overall accounting research publications based on contributions from the past 12 years. 

These results highlight the strength and impact of KU’s accounting scholars. Additional highlights from the 2025 BYU rankings: 

• Three KU Business accounting faculty members rank among the top 100 accounting researchers worldwide, out of thousands included in the database, for their publications over the past 12 years: 
  • Adi Masli, associate dean of graduate programs and Larry D. Horner/KPMG Professor — No. 13 
  • Chan Li, C.A. Scupin Professor — No. 18 
  • Mike Wilkins, Larry D. Horner/KPMG Professor  — No. 53 
• In BYU’s individual author rankings for overall breadth of research footprint, which reflect the breadth of topics and methods used, Masli ranks No. 1 and Li ranks No. 13 for their publications over the past 12 years. 
• KU accounting doctoral graduates from the past nine years rank No. 7 for archival research published in their first three years after graduation and No. 5 for archival research published in their first six years. 
• Accounting doctoral graduates from the same period also rank No. 2 for auditing research published in their first three years after completing the program and No. 3 for auditing research published in their first six years. 

A full list of KU’s accounting rankings and associated researchers is available on the BYU accounting rankings website.