Research transparency

Research transparency is a major aspect of scientific research. It covers a variety of scientific principles and practices: reproducibility, data and code sharing, citation standards or verifiability.

The definitions and norms of research transparency significantly differ depending on the disciplines and fields of research. Due to the lack of consistent terminology, research transparency has frequently been defined negatively by addressing non-transparent usages (which are part of questionable research practices).

After 2010, recurrent issues of research methodology have been increasingly acknowledged as structural crisis, that involve deep changes at all stages of the research process. Transparency has become a key value of the open science movement, which evolved from an initial focus on publishing to encompass a large diversity of research outputs. New common standards for research transparency, like the TOP Guidelines, aims to build and strengthen open research culture across disciplines and epistemic cultures.