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Import Functions, Make Cards, Small Fixes

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@maxheld83 maxheld83 released this 24 Apr 12:54

img_20150202_170342
This release for qmethod includes a number of small fixes and enhancements, as well as several new functions that should make it much easier to administer Q studies in a systematic way.

  • Import functions
    It is now possible to import a concourse of statements from raw text files into qmethod, and to then sample a Q set (#5), all within R.
    Similarly, you can now import completed Q sorts in their raw form, as prepared by participants into qmethod, and use them for your analyses, including several tests for the consistency and completeness of the Q sorts.
    It is also possible to import item feedback by participants in a systematic way.
    With these functions, qmethod is moving closer to an ideal of reproducible research, where all the steps from raw items and data to final factor intepretation can be tracked and documented programmatically.
    For suggested best practice in data management for Q studies consult the wiki
  • Print functions
    qmethod now also includes a function to conveniently print a Q set of statements on business cards, easily broken into individual cards, ready for administration, as in the below picture.

Small enhancements and fixes
(see details)

  • New function (q.fnames()) to rename the factors in the results, so that meaningful names are shown when exploring with functions such as print() or summary() (see details)
  • Function qdc() now reports differences in z-scores, not absolute differences (see details)
  • Fixed validation line in qmethod(), now values of both classes numeric and integer go ahead. (Thanks Frans Hermans!)
  • Scientific notation is avoided when using print() function for objects of class QmethodRes
  • Added additional validation to report an error if forced = TRUE but the data contains Q-sorts which do not follow the forced distribution, and improved error messages (Thanks Sèbastien Dujardin!)

Join the discussion (and development!)
qmethod is an open source software project created by @aiorazabala and now open for suggestions and contributions from everyone.
This process – which can easily be quite chaotic – is managed on the qmethod github repository, a popular service for open source development.
Everyone is invited to join the discussion, suggest new issues or hack away at more features.
If you've never tried git(hub), we encourage you to check it out – it's quite a boon for scientific collaboration.