Dear Rachel,
I’m not quite sure what the problem is with this analysis. I would probably re-save the file with a different name, make sure that all is in order, and try again (you may have done this already). If you send
me the file I’d be happy to take a look at it.
Dear Sharon: I’ve not had any problems with the fsQCA package. What file format do you use when you import the data into fsQCA?
Peer
-------------------
Peer C. Fiss
McAlister Associate Professor of Business Administration
USC-Marshall School of Business
Hoffman Hall 521
Los Angeles, CA 90089-0808, USA
Phone 213-821-1471
Fax 213-740-3582
URL
http://www-bcf.usc.edu/~fiss/
From: Qualitative Comparative Analysis and Related Methodology Debates [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
On Behalf Of Sharon Condon
Sent: Tuesday, May 14, 2013 2:36 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Novice fsQCA User Question
Hi Rachel
I can’t help with the specific question you have but I’ve also been having trouble with the software. I’ve got a large dataset but it imports without any problems – but we’ve found that the software
randomly changes data in cells. I’ve tested this over a few times and a colleague also has looked at it but the data in different cells gets altered. As a result I feel that the software is flawed and not to be trusted. I emailed the contact on the website
with this information but I’ve been told I need to converse with Charles Ragin directly – which I haven’t done yet. I wanted to analyse some data on bushfire preparedness here in Australia and I’m presenting on this at a conference in Germany (leaving today)
so it’s been quite a problem in that I can’t deliver on what I’ve stated in my abstract because of the issues with the software.
Good luck with it all.
Cheers
Sharon Condon (PhD)
Research Fellow
Rural Clinical School
University of Tasmania
Private Bag 3513, Burnie, Tasmania 7320, Australia
ph: 6430 5932
fax: 6431 5670
mail to: [log in to unmask]
From: Qualitative Comparative Analysis and Related Methodology Debates [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
On Behalf Of Rachel Gooze
Sent: Wednesday, 15 May 2013 4:10 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Novice fsQCA User Question
Hello,
I am attempting to teach myself how to use the fsQCA 2.5 software and I continuously receive error messages when I get to the “analysis” stage.
Below I describe the situation, and I appreciate any help this forum is able to provide. Thank you in advance!
I imported my data without any trouble. It consists of 31 Cases/Rows, each a different teen pregnancy prevention program, with about 20 Columns/Variables that represent attributes that are coded present (1) or absent (0). For example, one
Column/Variable of interest is “School” and is coded =1 if the pregnancy prevention program is delivered in a school-based setting, and it is coded =0 if it is delivered in a non-school setting, such as a clinic.
Our research question for which we thought crisp set QCA would be useful is the following: what configurations of attributes are associated with “successful” programs. The binary outcome “successful” (1/0) is considered present if the teen
pregnancy prevention program has a significant impact (evaluated by RCT) on any of certain pregnancy prevention behaviors (e.g. delayed age of initiation of sex or reported using condoms for most recent sexual encounter).
So far, I have been able to move through the following steps:
Analyze à Crisp Truth Table Algorithm
à Outcome = anyoutcome (1 = program was successful on any of several desired behavioral outcomes, 0 = program was not successful on any of the desired behavioral outcomes)
à Causal Conditions = school (school-based program), 10-13 year olds (program targeted pre-adolescents ages 10-13 years), 14-15 year olds (program targeted young high school age adolescents, ages 14-15 years), 16-18
year olds (program targeted older adolescents), psychosocial skill building (program teachers psychosocial skills), behavioral skill building (program teachers behavioral skills), etc.
When I select a set of causal conditions, the program generates a Truth Table. I then manually code the outcome =1 for all those with consistency scores of .80 or greater, I manually code the outcome =0 for all those configurations with
consistencies less than or equal to .30, and I delete the rows with no actual configurations existing or with consistencies between .30 and .80.
When I click on Standard Analysis, I get error messages such as: “ERROR (Quine-McCluskey): The 1 Matrix is Empty.”
Followed by: “Error: can’t read “rows”: no such variable.”
If I try Specify Analysis, I get an Intermediate Solution with no information, such as the following:
--- INTERMEDIATE SOLUTION ---
frequency cutoff: 1.000000
consistency cutoff: 1.000000
Assumptions:
Any help you can provide is most appreciated – thank you!
Rachel Gooze
Rachel A. Gooze, PhD, MPH |Research Scientist
7315 Wisconsin Ave, Ste 1200W | Bethesda, MD 20814
Office: (240) 223-9354
Email: [log in to unmask]">[log in to unmask]
Research to Improve Children's Lives