Articles reporting research on Latin American social movements are only rarely transparent

Figures & data

Table 1. Search syntax.

Population requirement	Search terms used*
(1) Social movements	TS = (*ocial NEAR/3 *ovement* OR *ovimiento*)
(2) Latin American	AND TS = (Mexico or Guatemala or Honduras or Nicaragua or ‘El Salvador’ or Belize or ‘Costa Rica’ or Panama or Colombia or Venezuela or Ecuador or Surinam or Peru or Brazil or Bolivia or Paraguay or Uruguay or Chile or Argentina or ‘Latin* Americ*’ or ‘South Americ*’ or ‘Central Americ*’)
(3) Social science	Databases = SCI-EXPANDED, SSCI, A&HCI**.
(4) English and Spanish	AND Language = (English or Spanish)
(5) Primary research	AND Document Type = (Article)

*The asterisk (*) is a wildcard. For example ‘Latin* Americ*’ can be Latin American, Latin America, and Latino America. The asterisk was used to include capital letters and social movements (in the plural). The Boolean expression OR makes a combined set containing at least one of the search terms and the expression AND makes a set consisting of elements that contain multiple search terms or subsets.

**SCI-EXPANDED = Science Citation Index Expanded (1945-present); SSCI = Social Sciences Citation Index (1956-present); A&HCI = Arts & Humanities Citation Index (1975-present).

Figure 1. Disposition of articles returned by the search.

Table 2. Indicators for transparency of research report.

Indicator	Categorization	Criteria
Central research question(s)	0. Missing	At best, only sub-questions specified
	1. Unclear	CRQs^a supplied inappropriately (e.g., only in abstract) or incomprehensively (e.g., identification of a research gap)
	2. Clear
Data collection methods	0. Missing	None specified
	1. Unclear	Incompletely specified (e.g., type of interview/observation; application)
	2. Clear
Sampling	0. Missing	None specified
	1.Unclear	Missing for at least one reported data collection method
	2. Clear
Sample size	0. Missing	None specified
	1. Unclear	Imprecise (e.g., ‘more than’), or missing for at least one reported data collection method
	2. Clear
Analysis	0. Missing	None specified
	1. Present	Any description of data handling after collection (e.g., any of mention of transcription, CAQDA^b, grounded theory, content analysis, etc.)
Conclusions	0. Missing	None specified, or none with a relationship to research questions
	1. Present	At least one conclusion has a (however weak) link to a research question
Limitations	0. Missing	None specified
	1. Unclear	Limitations are mentioned in passing and without elaboration
	2. Clear	Limitations are discussed directly

^a Central Research Questions

^b Computer Assisted Qualitative Data Analysis

Figure 2. Frequencies of population and coded articles over time.

Figure 3. Number of transparent articles by aspect of transparency.

Figure 4. ‘Reliable and ‘charitable’ identification of attributes of transparency.