TR8-05 XBRL Citation Analysis: A Decade of Progress and Surprises

Presenters: Saeed Roohani

XBRL (eXtensible Business Reporting language) is reaching its 10th year. The concept was articulated in 1998 by Charles Hoffman, then known as XFRML (eXtensible Financial Reporting Mark Up Language). The objective of this paper is to examine a decade (1998-2008) of XBRL articles published in various publications including trade and academic journals to identify trends and patterns, who has done what, who has been more active, and what were milestones. Another goal is to assess public perceptions of XBRL, its capabilities and its future. We found and examined over 3,300 XBRL articles where XBRL appeared either in the title or abstract of the article during 1998-2008 periods. Considering that XBRL reporting is being required only in recent years, the research shows various interest groups worked together for a long time to achieve a common goal. The academic community has also been proactive in assessing this new reporting standard and there is a trail of research to document. This paper provides various charts and interesting statistics.