WHAT’S NEW IN VERSION 2.6?

1. Refreshed look

Users will immediately notice SimStat 2.6’s updated interface. We have implemented a more modern-looking design, with additional icons for ease-of-use.

2. Projects are now stored in a single file

SimStat data files are now stored in a single file (with a .ppj file extension), providing an easier way to manage projects (delete, rename, move, etc.).  This will allow projects to be stored on folders synchronized through a network or in online storage (Dropbox, SkyDrive, etc.).  Consequently, changes will no longer be saved automatically on disk, but will require the use of new, yet familiar SAVE and SAVE AS commands.

3- Support of the report manager

SimStat now integrates the Report Manager features introduced in QDA Miner, allowing users to store documents, tables, graphics, and text outputs produced by QDA Miner,  WordStat, and now SimStat in a single location. The Report Manager is structured in an outline, allowing users to easily view, edit, reorganize, and write draft versions of reports.

4. New, easier to use file creation and variable addition dialog box.

We have improved the dialogue boxes for project creation and for adding new variables to provide a more consistent interface between QDA Miner and SimStat.

 5. Support of QDA Miner case descriptors

The SimStat case label feature has been improved to support the QDA Miner case descriptor feature.

WHAT’S NEW IN VERSION 2.5?

1. New factor analysis module (formerly Easy Factor Analysis add-on).

1. Image covariance or principal components and principal axis analysis on up to 2000 variables.
2. QType factor analysis
3. Number of factors extracted can be set manually or adjusted to a minimum eigenvalue criteria
4. Scree plot of eigenvalues.
5. Optional varimax orthogonal rotation of factor loadings.
6. Optional printing of descriptive statistics and correlation matrix for all the variables in the data set.
7. Printing of unrotated and/or rotated factor solutions.
8. Can compute factor scoring weights for both the rotated and unrotated solutions.
9. Factor scores can be displayed on-screen or saved on disk

2. New classical item analysis module (formerly StatItem add-on) for scale development and testing of multiple-choice item questionnaires.

1. Can perform item analysis on questionnaires with up to 2000 items.
2. Missing values can be excluded (case wise) or treated as incorrect responses.
3. Item statistics (frequency & percentage of endorsement, item-total biserial & point-biserial correlation, Cronbach’s alpha if item deleted, user-defined discrimination index).
4. Item-total endorsement rate matrix and item characteristic curves (based on original scores or smoothed data)
5. Item-total response breakdown to compare the percentage of correct responses among several groups of equal size (between 2 and 10 groups)
6. Scale total statistics (mean, median, minimum and maximum, standard deviation, standard error, skewness, kurtosis, Cronbach’s alpha, Ferguson discrimination index, etc)
7. Summary statistics on percent correct, biserial, and point-biserial correlations.
8. Frequency distribution of total scores.
9. Option to save scale totals on disk.

3. Importation of Microsoft Access data files.

4. Notebook window now stores results in Rich Text Format (fixed font).

1. Ability to change font attributes (bold, italic, strikeout, underline, color).
2. Ability to highlight text.
3. Ability to print highlighted outputs and export them to RTF files.

5. Web update provides an easy way to get interim releases of SimStat.