Interim report of the research committee

              Konrad W. Kubin VIRGINIA POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE AND STATE UNIVERSITY
INTERIM REPORT OF THE RESEARCH COMMITTEE
Charge. The Research Committee was charged to establish topics and relative priorities for sponsored and personal historical research over the short term (3 to 5 years) such that the widest benefit would accrue to the accounting discipline. Appropriate methodologies for research in accounting history were also to be identified and evaluated.
Members. The Committee consists of the following members: Michael Chatfield—California State University at Hayward Richard H. Homburger—Wichita State University Konrad W. Kubin, Chairman—Virginia Polytechnic Institute
and State University Murray C. Wells—University of Sydney Basil S. Yamey—London School of Economics and Political Science
Problems Encountered. The efforts of the Research Committee— as is probably true for all other committees—have been hampered by the fact that a formal meeting could not be arranged since our Committee was dispersed over three continents. The result was that we had a slow, laborious start because such tasks as interpreting the charge, limiting the scope of our endeavor, and setting priorities for accomplishing the various facets of the charge could only be achieved through time-consuming correspondence. We finally agreed to first concentrate on preparing a list of research projects in accounting history which members of The Academy were con-templating to investigate or would like to see investigated by a team of researchers with similar interests.
Accomplishments To Date. In order to identify such research projects, I developed and mailed a questionnaire to virtually all members of The Academy except those living in Australia and the United Kingdom. Since these two countries were represented on the Committee, I asked Professors Wells and Yamey to similarly poll the Academy members in their respective countries.