Background: Transparency is increasingly recognized as an important goal for research. But while tools and guidance for transparency and reproducibility abound for scholars working quantitatively, relatively few such tools exist for qualitative researchers. Methods: This paper describes the development and use of a transparency checklist for qualitative research. The transparency checklist provides qualitative researchers with a comprehensive list of documents and information to collect and archive during the course of a research project and suggestions for which of these can be shared to enhance the transparency of the project. Drawing on the rich tradition of checklists outside of academia, the transparency checklist is built to improve the quality of work and facilitate communication in research teams, rather than serve as a tool for external transparency assessments. Results: We describe the use of the checklist in qualitative research projects conducted at a nonprofit organization conducting policy-driven research on sexual and reproductive health. In practice, the checklist proves valuable not just for planning to make materials and data available, but also both for coordinating and organizing larger, team-based qualitative research projects and for maximizing the transparency of qualitative research for which data cannot be shared.Conclusion: Wider adoption of the checklist has the potential to improve qualitative research by supporting the sharing of data and materials, standardizing rigorous models of data collection and analysis, and by making supporting documents such as consent language and interview guides more broadly available, allowing for improved learning across projects.