Use of quantitative methods in studies about accountability in governmental websites

Abstract

This research aims to outline the use of quantitative methods used in research on transparency in websites. The analysis was based on a bibliographic reseach with a sample of 22 papers published in international and national databases: DOAJ, Redalyc, Scopus, Scielo and Spell. The results showed the use of descriptive statistics technique in 63.6% of the sample. It was also found that 45.5% of the studies are using a Pearson or Spearman correlation. In conducting the studies, a non-probabilistic sampling by judgment was used. The most used software were Microsoft Excel and the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). It was possible to conclude that quantitative research in the area of transparency in governing electronic portals very often uses simple statistical techniques, which corroborates the literature. It was also possible to conclude that there is oportunity for further detailing of the methodological procedures adopted, which would contribute to increasing the potential for replication of the studies.

Keywords: Accountability; Websites; Statistics; Quantitative methods.