About the Journal

Revista Contabilidade & Finanças (RC&F) is an open access journal, free of charges for authors and readers, published every four months and held by the Department of Accounting and Actuarial Sciences at the University of São Paulo School of Economics, Business Administration and Accounting.

RC&F is rated A2 according to the Qualis/CAPES classification in the field of Administration, Accounting, and Tourism. In addition, it holds a rating of 1 in the AJG Ranking, the ABS list of the Chartered Association of Business Schools (CABS).

Focus and Scope

Target public

The target audience of RC&F consists principally of academics, researchers, professionals and students of the areas of accounting, finance and actuarial science.

Scope and research areas 

Revista Contabilidade & Finanças (RC&F) publishes inedited theoretical development papers and theoretical-empirical studies in Accounting, Controllership, Actuarial Sciences and Finance. The journal accepts research papers in different paradigms and using various research methods, provided that they are consistent and relevant for the development of these areas. Besides research papers, its main focus, traditional papers and manuscripts in other formats that can contribute to communicate new knowledge to the community are also published. 

On submitting an article to RC&F, the author(s) shall certify that the work is in line with the Research Guidelines and with the scope of the magazine. 

The research guidelines which implement the focus of publication are:

• Management accounting and controllership

Refers to the field of research and studies on management accounting and controllership and their use in the organizations. Among the various themes of interest, it considers: management accounting; cost analysis and management; auditing of public, private, and third sector entities; tax planning and management; supply chain; strategic planning and budget control; management control systems; management information systems; assessment of investment projects; sustainability; controller career; among others. This research area treats various organizations types, including startups.

• Financial accounting

Involves the development of studies and research related to the aspects of identification, measurement, and disclosure of accounting information. Some of the principal elements are: accounting theory; corporate accounting; standard convergence; social balance sheet (value added statement, environment, human resources); intellectual capital; financial statement analysis; recognition of inflationary effects; corporate governance.

• Auditing and taxation

This research area encompasses topics related to Auditing, including assurance, internal auditing and internal controls, external and independent auditing, international standards, professional skepticism, auditor independence, IT auditing, audit committees, accounting expertise and expert responsibility, forensic accounting, fraud, behavioral aspects, and the use of artificial intelligence. This research area also covers topics related to Taxation, including studies on the internal environment of organizations — such as tax accounting, tax management, tax planning, tax governance, and disclosure — as well as studies on the external environment, such as economics, tax legislation, fiscal policy, taxpayer behavior, and tax incentives.

• Public sector accounting, finance, and auditing

This area encompasses research aimed at describing, explaining, interpreting, and/or understanding the generation and use of accounting information in managing and controlling public resources. It includes studies of various types of public sector organizations, as well as other organizational arrangements created to manage and apply public resources and policies. Among the numerous topics of interest, this area covers: governmental accounting in public resource management, public finance (fiscal management mechanisms such as debt control, fiscal solvency, and other controls over public expenditure, revenues, and fiscal limits operations); effects of public sector digitalization; organization and operation of public sector cost systems; managerial use of accounting information for the definition and evaluation of public policies; effects and implications of public sector accounting standards; historical approaches related to the public sector; public budgeting and financial and budgetary administration systems, whether as mechanisms of fiscal control, resource allocation, elements of power distribution within organizations, or transparency; control and accountability mechanisms (internal, external, and social), public sector sustainability, and various other topics related to the management and control of public resources.

• Financial market e companies/stakeholders integration

Covers studies and research aimed at conceptual and/or empirical aspects of the financial system markets (credit, exchange, monetary, and capital markets), as well as the relationships of taker and investor of resources, from the perspective of past and/or projected corporate performance, interest conflicts, transparency, governance, always linked to the accounting discussion.

•  Accounting, controllership, actuarial and financial education and research

Refers to the investigation of models, methods, techniques and instruments aiming at the improvement in quality of the entire teaching/learning process, as well as the construction of scientific works in all areas of the accounting, financial, and actuarial sciences. Comprises: higher education; accountants education; international curriculum; teaching and learning process; learning styles and strategies; education technology; on-line education and virtual collaborative models; accounting epistemology; profile; entrance process; permanence and dropout in the higher education; egress progression; assessment of educational programs.

•  Actuarial Sciences.

Covers themes related to risk management and social protection. Some of the principal areas are all of the modalities of insurance, basic security and complementary welfare, health, enterprise risk management and financial risk, finance and investments, demography and aging, and other research themes using actuarial techniques.

• Emerging themes in accounting, finance, and actuarial sciences

It is intended for critical and interdisciplinary research, examining accounting, financial, and actuarial practices as social instruments that can either perpetuate inequalities or promote justice and equity. To achieve this, it is essential to integrate knowledge from fields such as Sociology and History, to offer innovative perspectives. This research area prioritizes investigations that: (1) examine the role of these practices in shaping socioeconomic structures, challenging dominant narratives and exposing colonial and post-colonial influences; (2) explore how these practices both impact and are impacted by issues of gender, race, and class; (3) analyze professionals in these fields as a group, revealing how social, political, and economic contexts shape their identities and practices; (4) investigate the semantic transformations of fundamental concepts, demonstrating how seemingly stable terms reflect shifts in practices, economic structures, and power relations. This research area values both the prevailing meanings and those that have been marginalized, critically questioning the interests behind these struggles. This approach uncovers the complexities that shape technical language in different contexts, deepening our understanding of these disciplines as socially situated and contested practices.

• Researches developed within the Hispanic areas

Aims to become a meeting point between researches carried out in the Hispanic, Brazilian, and Anglo-Saxon areas, based on articles written in the area.

If the authors have doubts about the compliance of their works with the research guidelines of the RC&F, they should contact the Editor-in-Chief (recont@usp.br).

Evaluation

 The Revista Contabilidade & Finanças (RC&F) seeks to evaluate the articles by focusing on the quality and experience of the researchers.

 For this, the desk analysis process takes into account a set of relevant elements not only for the acceptance and publication of the article, but also for success in the citation.

The elements considered are:

1. Editor-in-chief send the article to the associated editor(s) using ScholarOne system. The elements that should be discussed among editors are:

• Is it in scope?;
• Attractiveness (elements that could make the article interesting for RC&F);
• So what? (innovation);
• Gap;
• Problem;
• Research question;
• Hypotheses;
• Referential and construct;
• Methodology;
• Outliers (if applicable); and
• Formal writing questions.

      2. Editor-in-chief and associated editor (s) analyze the elements mentioned and decide whether the article will be forwarded for peer review or not.

The journal establishes goals, in terms of deadlines, for the development of activities. In 2018, the goals are:

• Desk: 90% of submissions must be finished within 30 days;
• Review: 90% of submissions must be finished within 180 days.

The final step is when the article is sent to the reviewers or when it is informed to the authors who do not have continuity of analysis.

 When the article is sent to the reviewers:

1. The reviewer has a deadline to answer whether or not he accepts;
2. When accepting the invitation, the reviewer will have a deadline, which may be extended depending on their availability;
3. Points to be reviewed by the reviewers:

• Strong points;
• Weaknesses;
• Suggestions about the theme, methodology and methods, as well as the literature that supports research and findings; and
• The results, if derived from the research findings.

Reasons for Desk Rejection

Some of the main reasons why submissions are commonly rejected during the desk review stage (rejection without being sent to external peer reviewers) include cases where the article:

• Does not address a topic aligned with the RC&F scope;
• Does fails to demonstrate potential for an incremental theoretical contribution, essentially repeating what has already been discussed in the literature without adding new relevant insights;
• Does not incorporate relevant national and/or international references, treating the topic as if it were unprecedented in the existing literature;
• Replicates studies conducted in other countries or contexts using Brazilian data without clearly stating the motivation for this replication. It is recommended that the manuscript indicates why investigation in the Brazilian context is relevant—whether to assess if previously observed results hold true or to understand how the phenomenon manifests locally—even if a different result is not necessarily expected;
• In empirical studies, uses data in a predominantly descriptive rather than explanatory manner; and/or presents significant issues related to data, study design, or execution;
• In systematic literature reviews, is limited to a description of studies without developing a critical analysis or suggesting paths for future research; and/or lacks transparency regarding inclusion/exclusion criteria or other methodological aspects;
• Does not discuss the impact of the main findings, failing to explicitly indicate the academic and practical/social implications of the results, as well as the potential beneficiaries of the knowledge produced.

Peer Review Process

Ad-Hoc Reviewers (Peer Review)

 The Ad-Hoc Reviewers develop analysis of articles from a set of elements defined in template, such as interest to the journal, methodology, references, clarity, and so on. They shall recommend changes in the article, indicate it for publication, suggest a revision or reject it. These allowances are used by the Editor-in-Chief, having heard the Associate Editors opinions for the decision to accept or not articles.

The evaluation process is blind to all sides, that is, triple blind review. The RC&F Ad-Hoc Reviewers are recognized experts in the academic community nationally or internationally distributed both in terms of their scientific fields of expertise, as geographic, covering different regions of Brazil and other countries. Reviewers are invited by the Editor-in-Chief to be part of the journal’s researchers group and, within their areas of speciality, the invitation is extended to analyze the articles.

 The choice of Ad Hoc Reviewers for each article is made by the journal’s Editor-in-Chief, having heard the Associate Editors opinions.

Press release

Indexed in

Base Atena

Clarivate Analytics

Diadorim

Dimensions

DOAJ

EBSCO

Gale

ISI Web of Science - Scielo Index

ProQuest

LatinREV 

Redalyc

SciELO

Scopus

SPELL

Updated: 07/25/2025