ACCT5019 - Contemporary Accounting Issues Assignment

1. Your task

• Youare required to conduct a literature review of a topic area of your choice within this unit. You can select any topic from the following list to complete this assignment:
• Standard setting
• International Accounting
• Corporate Governance
• Capital market research
• Sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility

You are expected to discuss the contemporary issues only in the financial accounting area in relation to the above topics. The contemporary issues in auditing and managerial accounting are not covered in this unit.

• Each student is required to review five academic journal articles and prepare a report based on your review. The report should contain the following items:
• The title of the report
• Abstract – a brief summary of your report
• Introduction 
  • Briefly introduce the accounting issues related to your selected journal articles.
  • Provide the objective of your report.
  • Explain the research method of your study i.e., the database(s) and selection criteria you have used to select your sample papers and the data selection process.
  • Provide a table which shows your selected papers. The table should include the information such as the name of author(s), the year of publication, the title of the paper and journal, etc. For a sample table, please read, Ruch, G. W., and G. Taylor 2015 "Accounting Conservatism: A Review of the Literature." Journal of Accounting Literature 34: 17-38 and Daugaard, D. 2021 “Emerging new themes in environmental, social and governance investing: a systematic literature review”. Accounting and Finance 60:
• Background of your study 
  • Definition of each key term used in your selected papers e.g., earnings management, fair value accounting, measurement, principle/rule based, value relevance etc.
  • Background of the issues.
• Provide an overview of the main theory or theories that are relevant to your selected topic and/or used in your selected journal papers.
• Themes/Findings of the review 
  • Provide the main theme/findings from five journal papers you selected.
  • Based on your real-world experience or cultural and institutional setting in your home countries, do you agree/disagree with the findings/arguments?
• Conclusion
• References list
• In addition to the above, the report should meet other requirements in the marking guide (refer to Appendix 1) 

1. Submission requirements

• You need to include your name and student id on the assignment cover sheet.
• In compliance with Curtin University’s policy on plagiarism, your assignment must be submitted via Turnitin on Blackboard. You are also required to submit your work electronically to the grade centre via Blackboard by the due date.
• How to submit your assignment:
  • First, you need to submit your assignment through the Part 1 link – Assessment Submission (Originality Report) link via Blackboard, this will generate an Originality Report (i.e., Turnitin report or Similarity report).
  • Second, submit your assignment through the Part 2 link – Assessment Submission link via Blackboard. This submission will be marked based on the provided rubric marking guide. Please ensure that you submit the correct version of your assignment by the due date. Please be advised that
    1. you have one attempt for submitting your assignment, and
    2. we will not be able to mark your assignment if you didn’t submit your work through the Part 2 link.

1. Marking criteria

• The assignment will be assessed based on the content, completeness of information, appropriateness of format, grammar, spelling, and other additional information deemed relevant to the topic chosen. Refer to the marking guide for the breakdown of marks (see the Appendix 1).