Academic accounting research addresses all areas of the accounting profession, and examines issues using the scientific method; it uses evidence from a wide variety of sources, including financial information, experiments, computer simulations, interviews, surveys, historical records, and ethnography.
[5][14] Aspects of the divide have been suggested to include criticisms of academics for speaking with their own jargon and aiming to publish research rather than improve practice, and criticisms of practicing accountants for being resistant to changes to the status quo and reluctant to disclose data.
[5] Aside from accounting academia and practice valuing different skills and requirements, a variety of factors have been proposed for the divide.
They are by no means exhaustive, and many academic accounting studies resist simple classification.
[17] Other possible methodologies include the use of case studies, computer simulations and field research.