Blurry Access: A Bibliographic Analysis of Transparency Literature

This review of the transparency literature has shown the evolution of the field through the prism of bibliographic and methodological data. In doing so, we have shed light into underlying disparities that go in line with arguments of structural problems and historical relations in socio-political contexts. We have highlighted the irony of the field in researching a topic that, due to determinants beyond the control of scholars (though OA policies may slowly generate a structural change), is in itself little transparent. The blurriness of the state of research in transparency and accountability helps us to address the overall debate of academic production in a critical manner, engaging with issues such as publishing and funding. These latter elements should suppose gateways for a wider diffusion of knowledge, yet they have seem to function as gatekeepers, undermining the duality we argue about – transparency as object and as medium. Though the first one may be well-developed and methodologically rich, the second one remains blurry in regard to the way knowledge is distributed.