Critical Analysis of the Publication Process of Articles in the Accounting on the Consequences of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Iran: A bibliometric Analysis

Objective: The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly impacted the financial statements of firms since the first quarter of 2020. According to accounting standards in terms of the need to disclose the significant negative effects of the pandemic on financial reports, companies are required to disclose any possible effects of the pandemic in their financial statements (Al-Masoodi, Al-Kawaz & Abbas, 2020). Disclosure of the possible effects of COVID-19 in financial statements requires the application of measurement, identification, and public disclosure requirements with special attention to the requirements of assets held for sale, classification of liabilities and securities, impairment testing, and the identification and measurement of reserves (KPMG, 2020). Several things can potentially be affected by COVID-19 in the accounting operations of companies, including assets, fair value, hedging, debt contracts, loan contracts, income, financial structure, and disclosure (FTI, 2020).

Thus, it can be seen that the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the accounting of firms have been very high. Therefore, after the pandemic, many researchers in the field of accounting immediately studied and investigated its accounting consequences on firms. So that during the four years that have passed since this pandemic, various articles have been published in this field. In any case, after four years have passed since the beginning of this pandemic in Iran and responding to the accounting challenges and consequences of this crisis has had enough time to grow, it seems that it is the right time to present an evaluation of the articles published in the field of accounting consequences of this pandemic in Iran. In any case, considering the small number of Iranian articles published in this field, this research is a critical analysis of the process of publishing articles in this field in Iran.

Methods: This applied study was conducted based on bibliometrics. By combining different tools and methods, bibliometrics provides useful insights regarding the trends, components, and intellectual structure of research in various fields. The statistical population of the study included all articles published in the accounting scientific journals in the field of accounting consequences of the coronavirus pandemic in Iran from February 2020 to January 2023. The research data were also collected using a checklist and analyzed using Excel software.

Literature Review: Based on the studies conducted, various researches (such as Sarea (2020), Firmansyah and Rusydiana (2021), Campra, Paolo, and Brescia (2021), and Rinaldi (2022)) in the field of bibliometrics of articles in the field of accounting consequences of the covid COVID-19 has been done in different countries. However, no specific research has been done in Iran. In any case, the only article available in Iran that is somehow related to this article is Nobakht's article 2023, which is mentioned here. Nobakht (2023) analyzed the publication trend of papers in the financial field of the COVID-19 pandemic in Iran. His findings indicate that Iranian researchers have published only 7 papers on this topic in 13 scientific journals in educational financial discipline with different orientations in Iran. Therefore, relevant studies have been limited to several certain topics, and most of the financial issues have been neglected.

Results: The results of this study showed that Iranian researchers were able to publish only eleven articles in this field in 22 scientific journals in the educational discipline of accounting in Iran.

Conclusion: Like many other research fields, the COVID-19 pandemic created many changes and challenges for accounting research but also brought new opportunities. In this pandemic, by changing their research activities from face-to-face to remote, researchers adopted quick solutions to remove the research limitations. These changes prove that research is achievable even during quarantine, travel, and budget restrictions caused by COVID-19 (Molinari and Villers, 2021). In any case, accounting researchers in different countries have published many articles about the accounting challenges and consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic in accounting journals worldwide in these new conditions. But what is surprising is the small number of these articles in Iran. Therefore, in this research, the process of publishing articles in this field in Iran was studied and analyzed critically.

Thus, the review of the publication process of articles in the field of accounting consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic in Iran shows that after more than four years have passed since the beginning of this pandemic, the publication process of these articles is still slow, and the number of articles published in this field is also very little. Therefore, this situation shows the obstacles and problems that Iranian accounting researchers face when publishing their articles in this field. Thus, the review of the publication process of articles in the field of accounting consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic in Iran shows that after more than four years have passed since the beginning of this pandemic, the publication process of these articles is still slow, and the number of articles published in this field is also very little. Therefore, this situation shows the obstacles and problems that Iranian accounting researchers face when publishing their articles in this field. In any case, it seems that the very small number of articles published in this field can be caused by the limited number of accounting journals due to the large number of universities and training centers in this field, the lack of acceptance of other types of articles such as; review papers, case studies or methodology in these journals, as well as very strict judgments by the judges of scientific journals in this field. Therefore, it is suggested that on special occasions, such as the emergence of a major event or a special event that affects various economic sectors of society and creates challenges and consequences for accounting, the practitioners of accounting journals, by assigning one or more special issues to journals, increasing the number of articles in each issue of journals, paying attention to the acceptance of other types of articles and also reformist judgments instead of strict judgments while developing accounting literature in Iran can take a share of the opportunities created in the world's scientific environment in such times.