From the year of its foundation, until the foundation of Revista de Contabilidad in 1997, REFC has been the only referred accounting journal in Spain. Published by the Spanish Association for Accounting and Business Administration (AECA), this journal is at the heart of the emergence of a distinctly Spanish academic accounting community. Our study is based on: 1. An analysis of 100 issues of REFC covering the period from 1985 to 1999. 2. A questionnaire to Spanish accounting academics on their perceptions and experience of the journal. Key points emerging from this study include: a) A move away from interest in accounting concepts and rules, as well as accounting history, and towards positive accounting theory, the impact of accounting information on capital markets, and financial analysis. b) The emergence of a small number of universities as the driving force in Spanish accounting research. c) Spanish academics rate REFC highly compared to other Spanish journals for publication status, as a support for research, and as a support for teaching. A number of English language journals are rated more highly for both publication status and as a support for teaching.