This paper explores the main criteria used in researches in the field of online deliberation. Through an extensive literature review, we selected 59 articles that list indicators to assess discussions in the internet. In these articles were found, altogether, 369 criteria, with an average of 6,25 per item and standard deviation of 2,69. In a second stage, the research effort is made to group these criteria into broad categories and connected to the deliberative principles. The criteria were summarized in eight categories, namely: Justification, Reciprocity, Reflexivity, Respect, Pluralism, Equality, Information and Topic. We conclude that despite the many criteria used, one cannot say there is an excessive dispersion at online deliberation studies. This result is linked to different deliberative democracy approaches, the difficult to operationalize the criterion, the need for specific criterion for different contexts and objects and, in many cases, the mere difference of taxonomy.
deliberative democracy; online deliberation; political communication; public sphere
