The 50 Most Downloaded Papers in Intelligent Systems in Accounting, Finance and Management in 2014

• Published date: 01 October 2015
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/isaf.1382
• Author: Daniel E. O'Leary
• Date: 01 October 2015

EDITORIAL

THE 50 MOST DOWNLOADED PAPERS IN INTELLIGENT SYSTEMS

IN ACCOUNTING,FINANCE AND MANAGEMENT IN 2014

1. INTRODUCTION

The purpose of this editorial is to present and discuss the 50 most (full text) downloads from Intelligent

Systems in Accounting, Finance and Management for the time frame of the calendar year of 2014.

Downloads provide a measure of visibility for the author and for the paper. Previous research has

found that the number of downloads and Google citations are highly correlated (e.g. O’Leary, 2009),

suggesting that downloads are a leading indicator of citations. Diamond (1986) and others have noted

that citations have economic benefit for those being cited. Accordingly, citation and downloading stud-

ies can be important to those identified as among the most cited or most downloaded. In addition,

citation studies and downloading studies can provide important information to those who are being con-

sidered for tenure, promotion or chaired positions. As noted by Smith (2004), ultimately, an individ-

ual’s citation list may be more important than their publication list.

Downloads provide ‘potential’for the paper to be cited. There are a number of reasons to expect that

downloads of a paper might ultimately manifest themselves as citations. First, in order to know what a

paper says, it typically needs to be downloaded and read. Second, if a paper is downloaded, generally it

is downloaded for a reason, such as citation. Third, if a user downloads a paper, then the user has direct

local access to the paper and can cite it if they need it. Fourth, a researcher may have downloaded a

paper because they were requested to examine and cite the paper. For example, a referee may have

recommended that the paper be cited.

The number of downloads is a particularly useful statistic for papers where:

•The paper is recent and, as a result, not likely to have gained many citations, yet there is still interest

in anticipating the author’s or the paper’s impact.

•The concern is in anticipating whether a paper is still generating interest. For example, is an older

paper still of interest to readers? For this study, age of the paper is computed as 2014 minus the year

the paper was published.

2. IMPACT OF DISCLOSING DOWNLOAD INFORMATION

This paper uses proprietary information about the number of downloads. Since the list of downloaded

papers is proprietary, the extent to which a paper was downloaded is not known to others, a priori. As a

* Correspondence to: Daniel E. O’Leary, Leventhal Schoolof Accounting, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA,

USA. E-mail: oleary@usc.edu

Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

INTELLIGENT SYSTEMS IN ACCOUNTING, FINANCE AND MANAGEMENT

Intell. Sys. Acc. Fin. Mgmt. 22, 283–288 (2015)

Published online in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com)DOI: 10.1002/isaf.1382