Sustainability Reporting and Fair Presentation
DETAILS
Call for Papers
Sustainability Reporting and Fair Presentation
Journal: Meditari Accountancy Research
Publisher: Emerald Publishing
Special Issue
Manuscript Submission Opens: 1 September 2027
Manuscript Submission Deadline: 30 November 2027
Meditari Accountancy Research invites submissions for a Special Issue exploring fair presentation as a potential foundational principle for sustainability reporting, with particular attention to reporting quality, credibility, transparency, accountability, assurance, and decision usefulness.
About the Special Issue
Sustainability reporting has evolved from a largely voluntary corporate communication practice into an increasingly institutionalised form of reporting. Frameworks and standards such as the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS), International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) standards, and Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) have increased expectations for transparent, comparable, and decision-useful sustainability information.
Despite these developments, concerns remain around greenwashing, selective disclosure, narrative bias, incomplete reporting, and gaps between sustainability commitments and organizational practices. This Special Issue examines whether fair presentation can provide an overarching conceptual principle for determining whether sustainability disclosures offer a balanced, neutral, complete, credible, and useful representation of an organization's sustainability impacts, risks, opportunities, and performance.
Topics of Interest
Submissions may address, but are not limited to:
Fair presentation in sustainability reporting
Conceptual foundations of fair presentation
Fair presentation versus faithful representation
Fair presentation under ESRS
Fair presentation under ISSB standards
Fair presentation under GRI and other frameworks
Fair presentation and double materiality
Decision usefulness of sustainability information
Sustainability reporting quality and credibility
Fair presentation and sustainability assurance
Governance mechanisms supporting fair presentation
Greenwashing and fair presentation
Impression management in sustainability disclosures
Narrative reporting and balanced disclosure
Internal control systems for sustainability reporting
Connectivity between financial and sustainability reporting
Digital sustainability reporting
Artificial intelligence and fair presentation
Data analytics in sustainability reporting
Industry-specific reporting challenges
Cross-country and regulatory comparisons
Role of assurance providers
Climate-related risk reporting
Biodiversity impact reporting
Human rights and social disclosures
Stakeholder perceptions of fair presentation
Corporate accountability
Future sustainability reporting regulation
Preferred Article Types
The Special Issue welcomes:
Theoretical contributions
Empirical research
Interdisciplinary studies
Critical contributions
Research Focus
The Special Issue particularly encourages research examining whether fair presentation can serve as an integrative principle connecting existing debates around reporting quality, materiality, assurance, accountability, credibility, and greenwashing.
Contributions may also investigate how fair presentation could influence standard-setting, assurance practices, governance, digital reporting, and future sustainability reporting regulation, particularly as sustainability information increasingly includes estimates, scenarios, forward-looking information, and qualitative narratives.
Submission Information
Submission Opens: 1 September 2027
Submission Deadline: 30 November 2027
Manuscripts should be submitted through the Meditari Accountancy Research ScholarOne Manuscripts system.
Authors must select “Sustainability Reporting and Fair Presentation” from the Special Issue options during submission.
Submitted manuscripts must follow the journal's author guidelines, be original, and must not have been previously published or be under consideration for publication elsewhere while under review.
Guest Editors
Richard Barker
Saïd Business School, University of Oxford, United Kingdom
Email: richard.barker@sbs.ox.ac.uk
Alessandro Lai
Department of Management, University of Verona, Italy
Email: alessandro.lai@univr.it
Riccardo Stacchezzini
Department of Management, University of Verona, Italy
Email: riccardo.stacchezzini@univr.it
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