Code Matrix Browser: Visualizing Codes per Document

Transcription

1 Visual Tools

2

3 Visual Tools Code Matrix Browser: Visualizing Codes per Document The Code Matrix Browser (CMB) offers you a new way of visualizing which codes have been assigned to which documents. The matrix provides an overview of how many document segments from each document have been assigned a specific code, and this for each existing code. The Code Matrix Browser is constructed as follows: Documents are listed in the columns while codes are listed in the rows. The symbols at the conjunction points represent the number of coded segments that are coded with a particular code. The larger the symbol, the more coded segments are assigned to the code in question. The Code Matrix Browser The Code Matrix Browser can be opened in the following ways: Selecting Code Matrix Browser from the Visual tools drop-down menu, using the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Alt+M (Windows) or cmd+alt+m (Mac) clicking on the CMB symbol in the Visual tools toolbar. CMB symbol in the Visual tools toolbar Code Matrix Browser options After opening the Code Matrix Browser an options window will appear, which allows you to change display options. Often, only the activated documents might be of

4 interest, for example. Code Matrix Browser options dialog window First you have to decide whether the results should be grouped or not: Documents No grouping, every document has a column. Document groups The columns are made up of document groups. The coded segments of the documents in each group will be summed up. Document sets The columns are made up of document sets. The coded segments of the documents in each document set will be summed up. Focus Group Participants Focus group participants are displayed in the columns. Further options allow you to restrict and adjust the display: Only for activated documents Only the activated documents will be displayed. (If there are no activated documents in a document group or document set, the CMB will be empty.) Only for activated focus group participants Only activated focus group participants will be displayed in the columns. This option is visible only when the corresponding option above is selected. Only for activated codes Only the activated codes will be displayed as rows.

5 Use weight filter Only coded segments with a weight within the limits of the weight filter will be used. Count hits per document only once This option will be displayed only if a code occurs infrequently within a document. The unit of analysis is therefore not the individual segment, but rather the full document. Code Matrix Browser Toolbar The first thing you will see at the top of the Code Matrix Browser window is the toolbar, which gives you access to the following functions: Quote Matrix Displays coded segments as an Excel file Names, columns: none/short/full Determines display of document names in column headers. Calculation of symbol size refers to all coded segments. Calculation of symbol size refers to the column. Calculation of symbol size refers to the row. Display nodes as squares. Display nodes as circles. Display nodes as values. Count hits per document only once The Code Matrix Browser display will be based not on the number of coded segments but rather on the full document, meaning it will display only whether the code occurs in the document or not. For collapsed subcodes, the code frequency of the subcodes will be aggregated. Binarize view Regardless of how many coded segments are present in a cell, this function displays only whether a coded segment is present or not; the symbol size is therefore unified. Even when a collapsed subcode with multiple encodings is present, only one will be counted. Sum displays the sum of rows and columns. Refresh updates display via the Refresh function.

6 Open as Excel table Displays the matrix with the code frequencies of the Code Matrix Browser in Excel. The columns and rows are reversed to allow an easier import into SPSS. Export Exports the displayed matrix as values, meaning the number of coded segments per code and per document, in Excel or HTML format. The columns and rows are reversed to allow an easier import into SPSS. Export as a graphic file (Vector or Bitmap) is also possible. What is actually shown in the Code Matrix Browser? The size and color of the clusters in the matrix show how many document segments in each document have been assigned each particular code and subcode. The larger the cluster, the greater the number of segments that were assigned this code or category in this document. Tip: The sequence in which the documents are displayed is determined by their sequence in the Document System. If you wish to change the order of the documents, you must do so in the Document System. When you move the mouse cursor over a cluster, a screen tip appears: Tooltip in the Code Matrix Browser The name of the document, the code or subcode, and the number of coded segments assigned to the code are shown in the box. The document names in the column headers can be displayed in three ways: without document names, with short document names, or with full document names. The number of documents that can be displayed as columns in the matrix depends on this setting. In most cases, it is sufficient to use short document names, showing only the first few letters, which nevertheless is enough for you to recognize it. If in doubt about a document, you can take a look at the screen tip, where the full document name is displayed. If necessary, the width of the columns can be adjusted by clicking on a dragging the lines between column headers. For focus group participants, the names of the participants will be displayed in the columns in the place of the document names.

7 Tip: The columns can be easily moved with the mouse. In this way, you can easily compare the coded segments of two different documents or focus group participants. The codes are displayed in the CMB in the same way as in the Code System, in a tree structure similar to that of Windows Explorer or Mac Finder. Subcodes can be collapsed in the usual way, by clicking the symbol. Tip: When the subcodes are collapsed, the number of coded segments is aggregated on the parent code level. If a parent code (that hasn t been used in the document) has three subcodes with 10 coded segments each, when you collapse the subcodes, the parent code will show 30 coded segments. How is the Symbol Size Determined? MAXQDA determines the minimum and maximum code frequency of all nodes shown and then divides the difference between these two values in seven equal value ranges. The smallest value range is assigned the smallest symbol and the largest value range, the largest. By collapsing or revealing codes, you may change the smallest or largest value, and the overall display therefore may change as well. When all the numerical values are identical, a mid-size square will be displayed. If the Calculation of symbol size refers to the column/row option is selected, this mechanism is applied individually to the column or row. Jumping from the Symbol to the Coded Segment The document segments that have been assigned a particular code can be called up immediately by double-clicking on the symbol. The relevant document and code are then activated and the coded segments appear in the Retrieved Segments window. It is possible to keep the CMB open, allowing one to easily view the contents of different symbols. Exporting the CMB as an Image File The Export symbol in the toolbar allows you to export the Code Matrix Browser as currently displayed. This file can later be inserted into a word processing program or Powerpoint slide. Tip: Click on the camera icon to copy the actual view into the clipboard. Now you can open Word, PowerPoint, or other programs and paste the image into it by choosing Ctrl+V (Win) or cmd+v (Mac).

8 Code Relations Browser: Visualizing Overlapping Codes A tool similar to the CMB is the Code Relations Browser (CRB). The CRB is a visualization of the relationships between codes. A table shows how many document segments any two codes are attached to. The representation is similar to the Code Matrix Browser, but in this case, the little squares/circles stand for the number of cooccurrences of codes. You can open the CRB in different ways: By selecting Code Relations Browser from the Visual tools drop-down menu, with the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Alt+R (Windows) or cmd+alt+r (Mac) by clicking on the CRB symbol in the Visual tools toolbar. Symbol in the Visual tools toolbar for opening the CRB The Code Relations Browser looks like this: An example of the Code Relations Browser visualization Code Relations Browser options After opening the Code Relations Browser an options window will appear, which allows you to change display options. Often, only the activated documents might be of interest, for example.

9 Code Relations Browser options dialog First you have to decide which codes will be shown as rows: All codes All codes will be shown, the order being the same as it is in the Code System Activated codes Only the activated codes will be shown as rows. A similar decision has to be made for the columns in the Code Relations Browser, with the added option of Choose top level code. Selecting this option will open another dialog window after pressing OK, allowing you to select as many top level codes as you want. The selected top level codes and their subcodes will be shown as columns in the Code Relations Browser. Under Type of analysis you can decide which relations MAXQDA will show, as well as how often a code was used in a document: Co-occurrence of codes Only real overlaps of codes will be used, which means that a segment has to be coded with both codes and the codes need to overlap. Note: It is only possible to recognize pages in PDF-documents, not paragraphs. Therefore, the "overlap" and "near"-functions do only apply to whole pages when analysing PDF-documents.

10 Near (codes) Alternatively the Code Relations Browser can analyze how many encodings exist in which two codes are present at a defined distance from one another. After clicking OK, you can define the desired distance. Note: If you search with function Near (codes) and chose distance 0 you may find more hits than searching for Co-occurence of codes. The function Near (codes) only evaluates if two codes are assigned somewhere in the same paragraph not at the same segment. The option Only for activated documents will make the Code Relations Browser only look for relations in the activated documents. Count hits per document only once The Code Relations Browser counts the number of documents in which an overlap or proximity (near) of codes exists. It does not matter how many times the overlap or proximity occurs within a document. Code Relations Browser toolbar At the top of the screen, you will find the toolbar with the following functions: Quote Matrix Displays coded segments as an Excel file Names, columns: none/short/full Determines display of document names in column headers. Display nodes as squares. Display nodes as circles. Display nodes as values. Co-occurrence of codes Switches to an overlap type analysis. Near (codes) Switches to a near type analysis and displays a dialog window in which the maximum distance can be defined. (In table documents only the nearness of coded segments in the same column will be evaluated. Coded image segment will be ignored generally.)

11 Count hits per document only once The Code Relations Browser display will be based not on the number of coded segments but rather on the full document, meaning it will display only whether the code occurs in the document or not. For collapsed subcodes, the code frequency of the subcodes will be aggregated. Binarize view Regardless of how many coded segments are present in a cell, this function displays only whether a coded segment is present or not; the symbol size is therefore unified. Even when a collapsed subcode with multiple encodings is present, only one will be counted. Sum displays the sum of rows and columns. Refresh updates display via the Refresh function. Open as Excel table Displays the matrix with the code frequencies of the CRB in Excel. The columns and rows are reversed to allow an easier import into SPSS. Export Exports the displayed matrix as values, meaning the number of coded segments per code and per document, in Excel or HTML format. The columns and rows are reversed to allow an easier import into SPSS. Export as a graphic file (Vector or Bitmap) is also possible. What is actually shown in the Code Relations Browser? Each symbol in the matrix represents the number of intersections of the two codes. The larger the symbol, the larger the number of intersections. If you choose to switch to the Near function, the symbols represent the number of times two codes exist near to each other (within a certain number of paragraphs, defined in your settings). If you click on the Count hits per document only once icon in the toolbar, the symbols represent the number of documents that have at least one instance of an intersection or proximity between the two codes. It no longer matters how many times these intersections occur in each document. Tip: The order of codes in the Code Relations Browser will be identical to the order in the Code System. If you want to change the order in the graphic, you have to change the order in the Code System first. Jumping from the Symbol to the Coded Segment You can call up the document segments with overlapping codes by double-clicking on the node representing them. The Overlapping retrieval function will automatically be activated, bringing up the segments in the Retrieved Segments window. The CRB

12 can remain open, so you can quickly go from one set of overlapping codes to another. Note: If you are in mode Near and double click on a node, that has collapsed codes, the collapsed subcodes will be expanded automatically and only the higher code will be evaluated, not the previously collapsed codes. Exporting the CRB as an Image File The Export symbol allows you to save the current CRB display as a file, which you can then insert easily into a word processing file or Powerpoint slide. Tip: Click on the camera icon to copy the actual view into the clipboard. Now you can open Word, PowerPoint, or other programs and paste the image into it by choosing Ctrl+V (Win) or cmd+v (Mac). Document Comparison Chart: A Visual Comparison of Coded Text This visualization works for a number of documents at one time and offers a sort of mix between the Document Portrait and the Codeline. Simply choose the documents and codes that you wish to include in the visualization by activating them before calling up the function. Note: PDF-documents, images, audio and video files can not be analyzed with the Document Comparison Chart. The Document Comparison Chart shows the documents on the y-axis and the paragraph numbers on the x-axis, making it possible to compare the flow of codes in each document. The cells show the codes that exist in each paragraph of each document with a bar assigned the same color as the code it represents. Each code that is present in the paragraph is represented by a colored section of the bar. If a code is used more than once in a paragraph, it is still only visualized once. To give you an idea how this works, see the screenshot below. In this example, you can see 10 paragraphs for three different documents. You can see that there were no coded segments in any of the documents in the first paragraph. In Doc 1, the first coded segments are in paragraph two, where two blue and one red code are visualized.