Accountability in higher education is a global phenomenon and important area of scholarly inquiry and policy attention. How did scholarly conversations develop and communities form? How did ideas of accountability evolve and travel? Using longitudinal, mixed-methods social network analysis, we examine co-citation networks of 450 articles on higher education accountability published between 1992 and 2016. We identify 24 knowledge communities that coalesce around different accountability topics, fields, and contexts. Through this approach we are able to capture the transformation of accountability in certain fields as well as its adaptation and integration across the globe.