Item Text Descriptives

Item text pages: the standard · descriptives · merging with response data · known issues

About these data

IRW item text is reconstructed from published articles, codebooks, and supplementary materials using a largely automated pipeline with partial human review. It is provided for research purposes only. We make no guarantee that the text is accurate, complete, or correctly aligned with the item identifiers in the corresponding IRW response data; the original source document is always authoritative. Users are responsible for verifying item text against that source before drawing substantive conclusions. See Known Issues for documented discrepancies, and please get in touch if you find others.

Note also that the licenses recorded for IRW response data do not extend to the instruments themselves. Inclusion of item text here implies no license to reuse an instrument; copyright and related rights remain with the original rights holders, and users are responsible for obtaining any permissions their intended use requires. Where a table’s wording was released by its source under an open licence (for example CC BY-SA 4.0 or CC BY-NC 4.0), that table’s description on Redivis states the licence, the source and IRW’s changes, and that licence applies to the wording as published here. The licence applied to the item text implies no license to reuse the original source instrument.

The IRW item text resource contains full item wording for 2754 tables spanning 2584 distinct instruments. Items have a median length of 9 words (50 characters) and a median Flesch-Kincaid grade level of 7. See the Item Text Standard for a full description of the data structure.

Tables with item text

Code

plotData = transpose(plot_data)

viewof search = Inputs.search(plotData, {placeholder: "Search by table or instrument…"})

Inputs.table(search, {
  columns: ["table", "instrument", "mean_word", "mean_character", "mean_character_responses", "FK_grade"],
  header: {
    table: "Table",
    instrument: "Instrument",
    mean_word: "Mean words per item",
    mean_character: "Mean characters per item",
    mean_character_responses: "Mean characters per response option",
    FK_grade: "Flesch-Kincaid grade"
  },
  format: {
    mean_word: x => x == null ? "—" : x.toFixed(1),
    mean_character: x => x == null ? "—" : x.toFixed(1),
    mean_character_responses: x => x == null ? "—" : x.toFixed(1),
    FK_grade: x => x == null ? "—" : x.toFixed(1)
  },
  sort: "table"
})

Item complexity

The two scatterplots show item complexity across tables. Left: mean words per item vs. Flesch-Kincaid grade level. Right: mean characters per item vs. mean characters per response option (tables with no response options are omitted from the right panel). Hover for table and instrument details.

Code

lab = ({
  mean_word: "Mean words per item",
  mean_character: "Mean characters per item",
  mean_character_responses: "Mean characters per response option",
  FK_grade: "Flesch-Kincaid grade"
})

fmt1 = d3.format(".1f")

scatterFK = Plot.plot({
  grid: true,
  marks: [
    Plot.dot(plotData, {
      x: "mean_word",
      y: "FK_grade",
      fill: "steelblue",
      fillOpacity: 0.6,
      r: 4
    }),
    Plot.tip(plotData, Plot.pointer({
      x: "mean_word",
      y: "FK_grade",
      channels: {Table: "table", Instrument: "instrument"},
      format: {Table: true, Instrument: true, x: fmt1, y: fmt1}
    }))
  ],
  x: {label: lab.mean_word},
  y: {label: lab.FK_grade}
})

charData = plotData.filter(d => d.mean_character_responses != null)

scatterChar = Plot.plot({
  grid: true,
  marks: [
    Plot.dot(charData, {
      x: "mean_character",
      y: "mean_character_responses",
      fill: "steelblue",
      fillOpacity: 0.6,
      r: 4
    }),
    Plot.tip(charData, Plot.pointer({
      x: "mean_character",
      y: "mean_character_responses",
      channels: {Table: "table", Instrument: "instrument"},
      format: {Table: true, Instrument: true, x: fmt1, y: fmt1}
    }))
  ],
  x: {label: lab.mean_character},
  y: {label: lab.mean_character_responses}
})

html`<div style="display:flex;flex-wrap:wrap;gap:1.5rem;">
  <div style="flex:1 1 320px;min-width:0">${scatterFK}</div>
  <div style="flex:1 1 320px;min-width:0">${scatterChar}</div>
</div>`

Accessing item text

Code

library(irw)

irw_list_itemtext_tables()                   # List tables that have item text
items <- irw_itemtext("gilbert_meta_49")     # Fetch item text for a specific table

Code

import irw

irw.list_tables_with_itemtext()              # List tables that have item text
items = irw.itemtext("gilbert_meta_49")      # Fetch item text for a specific table