“What's in a name”: or why create another journal?

Purpose – This paper aims to sets out to provide encouragement to new researchers and challenge the widespread belief that in order to get published you need to travel on the coat tails of a Big Name in accounting research. With this in mind, the argument is that a key contribution of Qualitative Research in Accounting & Management (QRAM) has been to provide such encouragement. Design/methodology/approach – The approach is conceptual and theoretical employing the theories of Bourdieu on social dominance and status, and the work of Plantinga on the nature of perception and belief. Findings – These take the form of an argument that all social fields are structured so that levels of dominance are inevitable given the disposition (or habitus) of actors in the field to be so structured. Thus, the structure awards capital, in the form of status, while denying capital to others. Coupled with this human tendency to form structured fields is a reasoning that is inductive, and, as Plantinga points out, based on underlying beliefs and perceptions. Originality/value – Hopefully, this paper will prove controversial with many denying that in the liberal environment of accounting research something less than an egalitarian meritocracy could possibly exist. It is piously hoped, however, that among “lowly” researchers the paper will strike a chord that resonates.