The R Journal: article published in 2014, volume 6:2

qmethod: A Package to Explore Human Perspectives Using Q Methodology
Aiora Zabala , The R Journal (2014) 6:2, pages 163-173.

Abstract Q is a methodology to explore the distinct subjective perspectives that exist within a group. It is used increasingly across disciplines. The methodology is semi-qualitative and the data are analysed using data reduction methods to discern the existing patterns of thought. This package is the first to perform Q analysis in R, and it provides many advantages to the existing software: namely, it is fully cross-platform, the algorithms can be transparently examined, it provides results in a clearly structured and tabulated form ready for further exploration and modelling, it produces a graphical summary of the results, and it generates a more concise report of the distinguishing and consensus statements. This paper introduces the methodology and explains how to use the package, its advantages as well as its limitations. I illustrate the main functions with a dataset on value patterns about democracy.

Received: 2014-07-28; online 2015-01-04
CRAN packages: qmethod, psych, GPArotation, FactoMineR
CRAN Task Views implied by cited CRAN packages: Psychometrics, Multivariate

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license .

@article{RJ-2014-032,
  author = {Aiora Zabala},
  title = {{qmethod: A Package to Explore Human Perspectives Using Q
          Methodology}},
  year = {2014},
  journal = {{The R Journal}},
  doi = {10.32614/RJ-2014-032},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.32614/RJ-2014-032},
  pages = {163--173},
  volume = {6},
  number = {2}
}