Abstract ideas and concepts have their place, but as an academic, isn’t it also helpful to engage your students with examples of real-world challenges that they’re only reading about in textbooks? If you’d like to supplement your textbook teaching with some practical applications, then consider using cases from IMA Educational Case Journal (IECJ®), the IMA® (Institute of Management Accountants) quarterly online journal whose mission is to publish teaching cases and research related to case writing or teaching with cases. All IMA academic members receive access to this resource as a free member benefit.

IECJ publishes cases on topics reflecting the diverse skill set required of management accountants. Its published cases take learning beyond mere “number-crunching” exercises to require interpretation of data in a decision-making context – making them ideal learning tools for graduate and undergraduate students. Academics also have access to supplemental Teaching Notes to help spur on classroom discussion. These notes are available free of charge to IMA academic members only in LinkUpIMA in a Teaching Notes Library (you will be prompted to log in).

IECJ is listed in Cabell’s Directory of Publishing Opportunities for Accounting and welcomes submissions from around the world. Case studies jointly authored by academics and practitioners are encouraged. Real-world cases are strongly preferred, but fictional cases with some basis in practice will be considered.

Norman T. Sheehan, Ph.D., accounting professor at the Edwards School of Business, University of Saskatchewan, frequently uses IECJ cases in his upper-level accounting courses. He does so for two reasons: first, the cases are free of charge, which the students very much appreciate; and second, both the quality and the quantity of cases are excellent.

He explains, “The fact is, there just aren’t that many cases about management accounting. I use a lot of cases in my courses – up to 10 each semester – and I’m constantly looking for new ones. As a quarterly journal, the IECJ publishes a steady stream of curated cases, which enables me to continually refresh my syllabus. Moreover, the Teaching Notes are extremely helpful and are written so that an instructor can read them shortly before class and still be able to lead a compelling discussion.”

Sheehan has published numerous cases in the IECJ. His case, “SuperHeroes LLP: A Super Management Control Case,” co-written with Dr. Ganesh Vaidyanathan and published in 2013, has earned praise for its perennial appeal. “Students learn so much when we teach with cases, because cases require them to apply concepts covered in class to situations where they must solve problems and use higher-level thinking.”

For more details about the IECJ, including how to submit a case for publication and how to access Teaching Notes, please visit www.imanet.org/iecj.