ABSTRACT For the period 2013–2017, we examine top contributors to five practitioner journals published by leading U.S. accounting practitioner or professional organizations, based on an analysis of the authorship of over 1,000 main articles. Further, we survey leading contributors. Our authorship analysis reveals that the leading academic institutions and academic authors in practitioner journals are more likely to be top 100 in accounting education research, rather than in traditional academic accounting research. Further, most of the academic authors are tenured faculty members, and many have extensive practice experience. While some large accounting firms are leading contributors to practitioner journals, most of the top non-academic institutions are other accounting, consulting, and law firms. The survey findings highlight that authors' key motivations to publish in practitioner journals relate to potentially contributing to/influencing practice and gaining wide readership of their work, but the formal rewards to authors often are limited.