CONTENT ANALYSIS: ITS USE IN ACCOUNTING PUBLICATIONS

Abstract

The content analysis with its potentialities and, above all, with the ease that comes from being a discrete analysis, is an investigation method of undeniable interest as a way to seek to increase, improve and diversify the research. The purpose of this article is to review relevant issues concerning the method of content analysis and identify applications to the different themes and topics of the scientific field of accounting. Thus, its main contribution is methodological, in the sense that it highlights an analytical method while makes researchers who develop activity in this area available. 53 articles published in 23 journals were observed, included in the ProQuest database, whose publication dates are between 2001 and 2010. It was found that the most investigated issue was over financial reporting, with emphasis on the topic referred to as intellectual capital and that the objective most frequently identified in the studies was explaining, exploring and / or describing the differences in the practices of information disclosure.