Keywords: Challenges of comparative research and International Survey Projects, cross-cultural concerns in data collection and measurement issues

Transparency is one of the foundations of the scientific method (cfr. Merton’s scientific norm of communalism, 1973). It has two main functions: to enable readers evaluate the validity and reliability of a study’s findings (evaluation transparency) and to conduct a direct replication (replication transparency). Despite the fact that its importance has always been acknowledged by the academic community, in the last decade, there have been increasing evidence of replication failures, popularity of various questionable research practices, and cases of misconduct, mostly in the psychology and health fields (Open Science Collaboration, 2015; Baker, 2016; Steneck, 2006; John et al., 2012; Nelson, Simmons & Simonsohn, 2017). Transparency is not only an issue in these fields but in cross-national survey research as well. Even though multi-national surveys are publicly available and may not have a high risk of data fabrication, they come with their own particular challenges. A main one is the involvement of multiple actors in the research process (i.e., central coordination and design team, national teams involved in data collection, data archives, survey users etc.) and therefore the communication between these actors is key for the understanding and reporting about data quality. Furthermore, conducting a multi-national survey as well as a secondary analysis are often long and demanding processes that can require many individual decisions. Hence, being transparent about both the data quality and analytical procedures is critical for the evaluation and replication of cross-national studies.
This paper opens the debate about the level of transparency in cross-national survey research. The first contribution is theoretical as we provide an overview of the current measures taken to achieve research transparency in cross-national survey studies. We do so by developing a theoretical model regarding the processes, factors and actors that play a role in the level of transparency of an academic article. The second contribution is empirical and regards our dependent variable - article transparency. Specifically, using a random sample of 305 comparative studies published in 1 of 29 peer-reviewed Sociology, Political Sciences, and Cross-Cultural Psychology journals (1986-2016), we provide insights into the current reporting practices in cross-national survey research and make recommendations on how to achieve greater transparency.