Guardians of Accountability: Accounting Professionals’ Roles in Fraud Prevention and Early Internal Detection

Call for Papers

Guardians of Accountability: Accounting Professionals’ Roles in Fraud Prevention and Early Internal Detection

Journal: Accounting Forum
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Group
Special Issue
Manuscript Submission Opens: 1 March 2027
Manuscript Submission Deadline: 31 March 2027
Expected Publication: 2029

Accounting Forum invites submissions for a Special Issue examining the roles of accounting professionals, organizational structures, institutional environments, and emerging technologies in preventing fraud and enabling early internal detection of financial misconduct.

About the Special Issue

Accounting and financial scandals continue to affect organizations, markets, and public confidence despite extensive regulatory reform and stronger audit scrutiny. While substantial research has examined fraud after it becomes public, comparatively less attention has been devoted to prevention, early warning, internal detection, and the organizational conditions that encourage integrity or silence.

This Special Issue seeks to move beyond conventional compliance-oriented approaches by examining fraud prevention as a complex professional, organizational, institutional, technological, and ethical challenge. It particularly encourages research on auditors, certified fraud examiners, internal and management accountants, whistle-blowers, regulators, professional bodies, communities, and NGOs.

Topics of Interest

Submissions may address, but are not limited to:

• Role of auditors in fraud prevention and detection

• Certified fraud examiners and internal oversight

• Internal and management accountants as potential whistle-blowers

• Professional responsibility and ethical decision-making

• Early internal detection of accounting fraud

• Organizational conditions that enable or prevent misconduct

• Organizational culture and ethical behaviour

• Organizational silence and normalization of deviance

• Hierarchical versus distributed organizational structures

• Power, authority, and ethical dissent

• Whistle-blowing and speaking truth to power

• Retaliation and professional risks faced by whistle-blowers

• Legal and organizational whistle-blower protections

• Professional safeguards for reporting wrongdoing

• Institutional and regulatory environments

• Auditor independence and client pressures

• Audit responsibilities and fraud prevention

• Failures to respond to early warning signals

• Communities and NGOs in exposing financial misconduct

• Cross-country and cross-jurisdictional perspectives

• Digital finance and fraud

• Artificial intelligence in fraud detection

• Blockchain and financial accountability

• Fintech infrastructures and fraud risks

• Algorithmic fraud-detection systems

• Real-time monitoring and anomaly detection

• Data ownership and governance

• Bias in fraud-detection algorithms

• Technology and changing professional responsibilities

Preferred Article Types

The Special Issue welcomes:

• Theoretical contributions

• Empirical research

Submissions may use diverse theoretical perspectives and methodological approaches and may examine different national, regional, organizational, professional, or sectoral contexts.

Research Focus

The Special Issue particularly seeks research that shifts attention from the aftermath of accounting scandals toward how fraud can be prevented or detected internally before it escalates.

Relevant studies may examine how organizational design, professional norms, institutional structures, regulatory frameworks, ethical cultures, and technological systems influence whether fraudulent practices are identified, challenged, ignored, or normalized.

The Special Issue also encourages critical examination of how AI, blockchain, digital finance, fintech, and algorithmic monitoring simultaneously create new fraud risks and new possibilities for prevention and early detection.

Workshop Connection

The Special Issue is linked to the 4th EIASM Workshop on Whistleblowing, Fraud, and Accounting Scandals, scheduled for:

Dates: 9–10 April 2026
Host: EDHEC Business School
Location: Nice, France

Authors presenting at the workshop will have an opportunity to receive feedback from peers and Guest Editors.

Workshop participation is not required to submit to the Special Issue and does not guarantee publication. All submissions will undergo Accounting Forum’s standard double-blind peer-review process.

Submission Information

Submission Opens: 1 March 2027
Submission Deadline: 31 March 2027
Expected Special Issue Publication: 2029

Submissions are accepted in:

• English

• Spanish

• Portuguese

Authors whose manuscripts are approved must provide a final English-language version before final acceptance. Spanish or Portuguese versions may also be published as supplementary materials.

Accounting Forum – Instructions for Authors

Accounting Forum – Journal Page

Authors should follow the journal's submission and author instructions. Enquiries and declarations of interest regarding the Special Issue may be directed to any of the Guest Editors.

Guest Editors

Domenico Campa
International University of Monaco
Email: dcampa@ium.monaco.edu

Mary Vera-Colina
Universidad Nacional de Colombia
Email: maaveraco@unal.edu.co

Dan-Richard Knudsen
NHH Norwegian School of Economics
Email: dan-richard.knudsen@nhh.no

Aziza Laguecir
EDHEC Business School
Email: aziza.laguecir@edhec.edu

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