[DDI-users] Translation tools/processes from syntax files to DDICodebook

[Dan Smith]

Hi Jessica,

Colectica can automatically import the Qualtrics .qsf file to document a 
Qualtrics survey using DDI.

You can import both your existing Qualtrics survey .qsf file and the 
SPSS dataset from Qualtrics.

Cheers!
Dan

On 4/28/2021 2:41 AM, Hrudey, E.J. wrote:
> Thanks for sharing your R package, Adrian, and for starting the 
> conversation, Wendy.
> 
> Re: the original question-I used NESSTAR and uploaded the data files I 
> had (in this case SPSS, but it works with STATA too). NESSTAR 
> automatically uploads the existing metadata from the dataset, but there 
> is still a lot of manual work to do if the questionnaire had conditional 
> questions/routing. NESSTAR is nice in that you can add additional 
> information or include question text that is longer than the standard 
> variable label, but everything is manual so it takes a lot of work.
> 
> @Adrian-with your R package, is it designed solely to translate existing 
> labeled data into a codebook or is it possible to add and modify the 
> metadata (e.g. with NESSTAR there was the possible of providing 
> additional information about routing)? And can is be used to convert 
> data formats other than STATA?
> 
> On a general note, after the time I spent working in NESSTAR and 
> comparing it to Colectica, it seems to me it would be more efficient if 
> the questions in a survey could be marked up at the level of the survey 
> itself (to allow for capturing additional text or routing that cannot be 
> readily included in the labels of the dataset variables). I think that’s 
> what the Colectica Designer tool aims to do, but the problem is that 
> while it allows you to design a survey in Designer and then export that 
> marked-up survey to be uploaded into a survey tool, there are only a 
> handful of survey tools that can utilize this exported marked-up survey. 
> Unfortunately, it’s not so simple for my institution to just switch to 
> another survey tool (we use Qualtrics), so I’m not sure how we can best 
> create marked-up surveys that can be reused and that should make the 
> process of creating a DDI codebook easier, without requiring researchers 
> to create the survey two times: once in a DDI tool like Colectica and 
> once in the survey tool itself.
> 
> Has anyone else had this experience?
> 
> Sincerely,
> 
> Jessica
> 
> *From: *<ddi-users-bounces at icpsr.umich.edu> on behalf of Adrian Dușa 
> <dusa.adrian at unibuc.ro>
> *Reply-To: *Data Documentation Initiative Users Group 
> <ddi-users at icpsr.umich.edu>
> *Date: *Friday, April 23, 2021 at 10:58 PM
> *To: *Data Documentation Initiative Users Group <ddi-users at icpsr.umich.edu>
> *Subject: *Re: [DDI-users] Translation tools/processes from syntax files 
> to DDICodebook
> 
> I have an R package that can do that out of the box. The command is as 
> simple as:
> 
> convert("yourfile.dta", to = "DDI")
> 
> The latest development version depends on another R package called 
> "haven", which (in its latest development version but yet not published 
> on CRAN) can read and write Stata style defined missing values such as 
> .a, .b etc.
> 
> In the XML codebook file, they are automatically (and consistently 
> across all variables) replaced with negative numbers such as -1, -2 etc.
> 
> Both development versions can be installed from GitHub, using:
> 
> library(remotes)
> 
> install_github("tidyverse/haven")
> 
> install_github("dusadrian/DDIwR")
> 
> I'd be happy to be of assistance in case you need any help.
> 
> I hope this helps,
> 
> Adrian
> 
> On Fri, Apr 23, 2021 at 9:23 PM Wendy Thomas <wlt at umn.edu 
> <mailto:wlt at umn.edu>> wrote:
> 
>     I had this question within another conversation recently and was
>     wondering what people were using and if there were any new tools out
>     there.
> 
>     "While I have your attention: what is the process of creating the
>     DDI codebooks based on existing data sets? Suppose I have a labeled
>     data set in Stata, what would I need to do to produce a DDI codebook
>     XML file out if it? "
> 
>     Answer to the list. I'll compile and I'm sure others are interested.
> 
>     Wendy
> 
>     -- 
> 
>     Wendy L. Thomas                              Phone: +1 612.624.4389
> 
>     Data Access Core Director                 Fax:   +1 612.626.8375
> 
>     Minnesota Population Center             Email: wlt at umn.edu
>     <mailto:wlt at umn.edu>
> 
>     University of Minnesota
> 
>     50 Willey Hall
> 
>     225 19th Avenue South
> 
>     Minneapolis, MN 55455
> 
>     _______________________________________________
>     DDI-users mailing list
>     DDI-users at icpsr.umich.edu <mailto:DDI-users at icpsr.umich.edu>
>     http://lists.icpsr.umich.edu/mailman/listinfo/ddi-users
>     <http://lists.icpsr.umich.edu/mailman/listinfo/ddi-users>
> 
> 
> -- 
> 
> Adrian Dusa
> University of Bucharest
> Romanian Social Data Archive
> Soseaua Panduri nr. 90-92
> 050663 Bucharest sector 5
> Romania
> 
> https://adriandusa.eu <https://adriandusa.eu>
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> DDI-users mailing list
> DDI-users at icpsr.umich.edu
> http://lists.icpsr.umich.edu/mailman/listinfo/ddi-users
> 

-- 
Dan Smith
+1 608-213-2867
Colectica - Statistical Data Management
http://www.colectica.com