SPSS Text Analysis Launch

SPSS has announced the launch of a new product, Text Analysis for Surveys, which aims to provide an efficient way of mining key information from open ended responses and is claimed by one user at least as the 'Holy Grail' of survey text analysis.

The package has the ability to distinguish between positive and negative open-ended responses, and can import data from multiple sources, including ODBC-compliant databases, Microsoft(r) Excel files (.xls), and SPSS files (.sav). It helps to transform unstructured, qualitative data into structured, quantitative data by 'reliably extracting and classifying key concepts' from responses, using linguistic algorithms.

The categories / codes produced can be re-used to provide consistent results across the same or similar studies. According to SPSS, the package not only reduces the need for outside coding services but also 'minimizes inconsistencies that can occur due to human error from manual coding'.

Academic researchers are already heralding the new package's capabilities. Bob Muenchen, Manager of the Statistical Consulting Center at The University of Tennessee Office of Information Technology, is confident enough to declare it the 'Grail' after comparisons with other software. 'The product's linguistic capabilities in this regard are excellent. I have used four others that attempted to automate text categorization and only SPSS Text Analysis for Surveys could consistently detect satisfied respondents from dissatisfied ones'. John Lemon, Senior Computing Advisor at the University of Aberdeen, Scotland, says it is 'exactly what the university has been searching for to extract critical nuggets of information from long text survey responses'.

The North American price is $2,500 for commercial and public sector customers and $700 for academic users. More information is available at www.spss.com/textanalysis_surveys/ .

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.