AAA Journal Style for Hot Links
Bob Jensen at Trinity University 

Bob Jensen, Francine McKenna, and many other bloggers and correspondents these days write in a style where nearly every other phrase is a hot link to a reference. It's much more convenient than looking for footnotes, although some of us probably take this to a fault.


I've not checked whether writing style references like those used for journal articles and dissertations now have accepted styles for hot links.


Journals now like the AAA research journals now have hot links in the electronic versions of the articles that are of course lost in hard copy. The following paragraph from (Vic Naiker, Divesh S. Sharma and Vineeta D. Sharma) the January 2013 edition of TAR illustrates what must be acceptable form for AAA journal publications ---

 

Despite the SOX constraints on the purchase of most NAS, regulators (Public Company Accounting Oversight Board [PCAOB] 2005; SEC 2006) and market participants still perceive NAS procured from the auditor to be an antecedent threat to the performance of the audit (Krishnan et al. 2005; Francis and Ke 2006; Francis 2006). The perception problem is likely to continue as long as auditors provide NAS and create potential economic bonding that might undermine an auditor's factual independence (Panel on Audit Effectiveness 2000; Francis 2006; Moore et al. 2006).² More recent post-SOX academic evidence suggests NAS may remain a potential threat to the auditor's independence (Beasley et al. 2009). Further, the PCAOB (2007) indicates that some auditors still perform NAS prohibited by SOX and that audit committees often fail to address auditor independence concerns related to NAS.³ Consequently, the PCAOB adopted Rule 3526, effective September 22, 2008, which requires a registered public accounting firm to disclose in writing to the audit committee all relationships between the audit firm or any of its affiliates and the client that may reasonably be thought to bear on the auditor's independence (PCAOB 2008). One such relationship or affiliation encapsulated by Rule 3526 is audit firm alumni serving on a client's audit committee.

Jensen Comment
In the above quotation I showed the hot links in bold face. Note these links are to end-of-paper references and footnotes such that the reader on a computer need not be connected to the Web.  . Superscript hot link numbers link to footnotes listed at the end of the paper.

The footnotes and references, however, have full links to items on the Web. Here's an example in the paper quoted above:

Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). 2003d. Letter from SEC Deputy Chief Accountant to Ernst & Young. July 8. Available at: http://www.sec.gov/info/accountants/staffletters/e-y070803.htm

 Of course all the paper's hot links are dead links in the hard copy version of the articles.