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Creating Formatted Data Files
Researchers can examine the results of a study on-screen by clicking on the link called View all sessions as a single data table at the top of the All Sessions Index Table, which contains a list of all sessions completed and saved. However, they cannot modify these data, perform statistical analyses on them, export them to other software programs, or transmit them to other researchers. For this, the data must be downloaded from the data archives on the ProtoGenie server in a format that supports these research tasks.
Data File downloading and construction is executed by clicking on one of two links located immediately above the All-Sessions Index Table. One creates a comma delimited results file while the other created a results file that uses a delimiter of your choice. When one of these options is selected, a results file download option arranges study results into a standard data table in which the rows consist of sessions (subjects, respondents, etc.) and the columns represent variables (events). For example, a study may consist of 10 sessions and 20 variables (events) with each cell representing the response of the Kth Subject (sessions) to the Vth event (such as a multiple choice question).
More specifically, ProtoGenie Separates Events Into Columns. This requires the specification of a file "delimiter." Delimiters can be most any alpha-numeric character or character set, such as commas, semicolons, or quotation marks. These delimiters indicate where one event ends and the next event begins.
In the data file construction process, ProtoGenie also puts event names In the top row of the data table. These names are the "variable names" that the author provides during protocol construction. If the author has left any of these variable name fields blank, then ProtoGenie assigns them the number of the column. These names and numbers can be edited later if there are many variables and better event identification is desired. Also included as a "variable" name is "Group Name." In this column, for each session (subject/respondent/row) is the name of the group in which the session took place.
Another operation that ProtoGenie automatically performs in the construction of data files is to scan the response data for instances in which characters used in subject responses are the same as the selected delimiter and to replace them with a neutral character or set of characters. If this is not done, then the program will interpret instances of the delimiter as an event break and separate the text immediately before the delimiter character and immediately after the delimiter character into two variables, thereby corrupting the alignment of columns (event variables) in the data file.
The three options for creating (downloading) formatted data files are selected by clicking on one of the three links appearing above the All-Session Index Table, namely:
View all sessions as a single data table
Download Comma Delimited (RxC) Results File
Download Results file using a delimiter of your choice