The methodological profile of scientific publications on public transparency: An analysis of the African scenario

This study seeks to analyze the methodological profile of scientific publications completed on public transparency within the context of the African continent. The following are the specific objectives of this study: to present the research methods commonly utilized in academic investigation concerning public transparency in Africa, to survey compilation of a sample of articles on public transparency contained in the Scopus, Portal de Periodicos CAPES, and Web of Science databases, within the time period of 2001-13, and to identify the activity sectors, approaches and research methods utilized in the studies making up the sample. In terms of these objectives, the methodology employed is characterized as exploratory and descriptive, while, in regard to the technical processes undergone, the study is bibliographic and documentary in nature. It was carried out using quantitative data. The study concludes that the existing research in this field is not limited to specific activity sectors, but rather relevant to the public sector in general. The survey also showed a predominate use of a quantitative approach; the principal research tool is the descriptive method. Key words: Transparency, public administration, research methods. INTRODUCTION This study is framed within the context of public adminis-tration, and its goal is to reflect the methodological processes utilized by researchers during the formulation of academic research on public transparency in the African continent. Along these lines, the study seeks to analyze the methodologies employed by the authors of these existing studies, and to better understand the circumstances under which said works were completed. What led to the research of the topic in question is the fact that many African countries are indicated to be the most corrupt in the world (Transparency International, 2013). As a result, this work aims to identify the methodological profile used in scientific publications on public transparency produced in Africa. Within this study, methodological profile is understood as the approaches and research methods employed in scientific publications *Corresponding author. E-mail: belcole@gmail.com Authors agree that this article remain permanently open access under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 International License