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Record W4386361988 · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0290728

Impact of factor rotation on Q-methodology analysis

2023· article· en· W4386361988 on OpenAlexaff
Noori Akhtar‐Danesh

Bibliographic record

VenuePLoS ONE · 2023
Typearticle
Languageen
FieldDecision Sciences
TopicQ Methodology Applications
Canadian institutionsMcMaster UniversityImpact
Fundersnot available
KeywordsVarimax rotationRotation (mathematics)Factor (programming language)StatisticsEuler's rotation theoremFactor analysisMathematicsComputer scienceArtificial intelligencePsychometrics

Abstract

fetched live from OpenAlex

The Varimax and manual rotations are commonly used for factor rotation in Q-methodology; however, their effects on the results may not be well known. In this article we investigate the impact of different factor rotation techniques in Q-methodology, specifically how the factors and their distinguishing statements might be affected. We applied three factor rotation techniques including Varimax, Equamax, and Quartimax rotations on two exemplary datasets and compared the results based on the number of Q-sorts loaded on each factor, number of distinguishing statements for each factor, and changes in the number of distinguishing statements. We also estimated the Pearson correlation between the extracted factors based on rotation techniques. This analysis shows that factors can change substantially from one rotation to another. For instance, there was only 3 common distinguishing statements between Factor 1 of no-rotation of Dataset 1 and its matched factor from Varimax rotation. Even for 3 common statements, the factor scores were quite different from no-rotation to Varimax rotation. This analysis shows that the effects of factor rotation on emerging factors are complex. The changes are usually substantial such that the rotated factors might be quite different from the original factors.

Fetched live from OpenAlex and de-inverted. Abstracts are not stored in this database: the inverted indexes are 8.6 GB of the frame’s 9.3 GB of text, and the host has 13 GB free.

How this classification was reachedexpand

Full frame machine prediction

Teacher imitation

Not calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.

metaresearch head score (Codex)0.253
metaresearch head score (Gemma)0.696
Version: metacan-v3-hybrid-931329e0061cValidation status: machine_predicted_unvalidated
Candidate categoriesMetaresearch
Consensus categoriesMetaresearch
DomainCandidate signal: Methods · Consensus signal: none
Study designCandidate signal: Simulation or modeling · Consensus signal: none
GenreCandidate signal: Methods · Consensus signal: Methods
Teacher disagreement score0.747
Threshold uncertainty score0.921

Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)

CategoryCodexGemma
Metaresearch0.2530.696
Meta-epidemiology (narrow)0.0040.001
Meta-epidemiology (broad)0.0020.005
Bibliometrics0.0040.012
Science and technology studies0.0030.005
Scholarly communication0.0070.006
Open science0.0020.006
Research integrity0.0010.004
Insufficient payload (model declined to judge)0.0110.003

Machine scores (provisional)

The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.

Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.

Opus teacher head0.802
GPT teacher head0.556
Teacher spread0.246 · how far apart the two teachers sit on this one work
Validation statusscore_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from it

Classification

machine, unvalidated

Machine predicted; the direct Gemma label and the distilled Codex classifier agree on what is shown here.

Study designSimulation or modeling
DomainMethods
GenreMethods

How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".

Quick stats

Citations35
Published2023
Admission routes1
Has abstractyes

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