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Introduction

Accounting in the public sector faces complex challenges, ranging from economic austerity (Bracci et al., 2015), sustainable development (Cohen et al., 2023) and public value creation (Bracci et al., 2021; Panagiotopoulosa et al., 2019), to the growing demands of considering digitalization and data science (Agostino et al., 2022; 2023). Given these multidimensional new and evolving paradigms, accounting seems to be lost in a maze. This special issue, while recognizing the importance of the widening of accounting, returns the debate to the cornerstones of accounting in the public sector.

The new challenges mentioned, pose further challenges for pivotal aspects of modern democracies and their financial accountability processes. To what extent are the governance and the rules for producing accounting information still adequate to address the thirst for financial accountability?

Thus, the need to adapt accounting and reporting practices in the public sector in the face of contemporary challenges increases, in order to promote resilience and trust in public services and entities, and in governments overall (Bisogno et al., 2024b). This has expanded the traditional limits of public sector accounting to include non-financial information (Manes-Rossi & Orelli, 2020). The disclosure of non-financial information has progressively expanded, mainly based on the willingness of public sector entities to communicate with all stakeholders (Manes-Rossi, 2024).

While acknowledging the importance of non-financial information, in particular sustainability reporting (Cohen et al., 2023), it seems that a major challenge facing public sector accounting today is to understand what it is all about. Accordingly, some academics propose new definitions of accounting. Some now see accounting as a social and moral practice, and not merely as a technical practice (Carnegie et al., 2021; 2024). Vollmer et al. (2024) suggest to broaden the study of public sector accounting to respond to changing responsibilities in a society that is often divided on issues of public concern, exemplified by current debates around climate change.

Given this paradigm and the focus of research in recent years, Bisogno et al. (2024a) pose the question: is public sector accounting radically changing itself and its traditional approaches?
Despite the enlargement of the scope of accounting and its role, this should not result in the departures of accounting from its fundamental blocks related to its basic concepts, principles and standards (Cohen & Manes-Rossi, 2024). From a conceptual point of view, the utility paradigm applied to public sector accounting has envisaged, since immemorial times, a financial information system for decision-making and accountability (Montesinos Julve, 2022). But, while financial reports need to follow a standardized format to ensure the disclosure of complete information, it is important to recognize that different groups of users have distinct interests regarding accounting aspects, as is the example of citizens, politicians, managers, employees, investors or supervisory bodies (van Helden & Reichard, 2019).

Today, different stakeholders of public sector accounting, in addition to demanding traditional financial information (Raimo et al., 2023) require accountability on the aforementioned matters, leading public sector entities’ reports to incorporate non-financial information (Jorge, 2021; Manes-Rossi, 2019). For example, politicians resort to the use of financial information (Jorge et al., 2023) but acknowledge the importance of (and sometimes even prefer) non-financial information (Liguori et al., 2016).

If public sector accounting and reporting is to continue to provide information for accountability and decision-making by a wide range of stakeholders, its scope should certainly be reviewed. However, expanding the scope of analysis and reporting of public sector accounting can cause it to lose its identity, becoming a component of a broad accountability discourse. Therefore, as Heise and Gros (2024) point out, this is the time for public sector accounting to consider the association between non-financial and sustainability issues with their financial implications. This does not necessarily mean forgetting its roots, and its original purpose.

After incursions throughout several areas, moving away from its essence – financial information – perhaps it is time to take a step back, look at the origins of public sector accounting and reflect on the usefulness and use of this information in current times. Several questions can be raised, such as: Is financial information getting lost in a maze? Is it losing its central role in public sector reporting? Are governments disregarding deficits and debt in financial terms? Is the financial position of public sector entities (their assets and liabilities) being degraded to a second plan as an indicator of financial and operational capacity? Is the information collected for financial reporting purposes recognized as no longer sufficient to support decision-making in the public sector?

With this in mind, we invite to this special issue submissions discussing and reflecting on the use of accounting information in public sector financial management, framing the research on returning to public sector accounting fundamentals. We particularly encourage papers on the following topics, while remaining open to other topic areas:

• Public sector accounting for public value;
• Alternative financial statements and the use of public sector accounting information;
• Use of public sector accounting information for dialogue with citizens and promoting democracy;
• The old pattern of accountability for accounting-based information and its ability to glitter again;
• Public sector accounting information use and government financial statistics;
• The use of fiscal rules and fiscal governance to bridge between financial and non-financial sustainability issues;
• Perceived information needs of politicians and public sector officials in a changing user needs environment;
• Public policy decision-making and the use of public sector accounting information;
• Digitalization support to public sector accounting information use for accountability and decision-making purposes;
• The role of the academia in educating for public sector accounting use;
• Public sector accounting information use and SDGs attainment; and
• Decoupling and remerging the financial and non-financial information for a purposeful usage.

We support all appropriate methodologies and theoretical frameworks, and favour innovative approaches.

Guest Editors

Susana Jorge
University of Coimbra, Portugal
[email protected]

Sandro Brunelli,
University of Roma Tor Vergata, Italy
[email protected]

Eugenio Caperchione,
University of Modena and Reggio Emília, Italy
[email protected]

Liliana Pimentel,
University of Coimbra, Portugal
[email protected]

Submission Information

Submissions are made using ScholarOne Manuscripts. Registration and access are available at by clicking the button below.

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Author guidelines must be strictly followed.

Authors should select (from the drop-down menu) the special issue title at the appropriate step in the submission process, i.e. in response to “Please select the issue you are submitting to”.

Submitted articles must not have been previously published, nor should they be under consideration for publication anywhere else, while under review for this journal.

Key Deadlines

Closing date for manuscripts submission: 30 September 2025
(Revised manuscripts must be delivered by 31 January 2026; final manuscripts will be due by 31 May 2026.)
Papers previously submitted to the European Group of Public Administration PSG XII Spring Workshop 2025 are appreciated. However, other papers are welcome.