About CHIC Analysis

CHIC (Correspondence & HIerarchical Cluster) Analysis is a standalone software designed for practitioners in the field of Correspondence Analysis and Related Methods. It features two well known exploratory data analysis methods to portray the overall structure of a data analysis session: Correspondence Analysis-CA (Simple and Multiple) and Hierarchical Cluster Analysis (Benzecri's chi-square distance, Ward's linkage criterion). The implementation of CA is in line with both the French School and the Gifi System of Data Analysis.

CHIC Analysis combines the graphical interface capabilities of Codegear Delphi with the computational power of Mathworks MatLab® (R version forthcoming). The software was implemented as an attempt to contribute to the effectiveness and reliability of Correspondence Analysis. It offers numerous aids to the results' interpretation and tools for the construction and analysis of special data tables. Special emphasis has been put on the graphical options for bi-plots, maps and dendrograms.

CHIC Analysis was designed to be reasonably comprehensive, fairly easy to use, accurate, and available for free.

Features


CHIC Analysis implements:

1. Correspondence Analysis (Simple and Multiple)

  • Data Format: Contingency table, Observations / Variables table (Indicator matrix, Burt matrix), Direct Construction of Burt Subtables
  • Tools for the discretization of quantitative variables into ordinal and the recoding of a categorical variable
  • A great variety of interpretation options (French School and GIFI System of Data Analysis)
  • Symmetric Plot and Biplot charts

2. Hierarchical Cluster Analysis (A special case of Ward clustering, Benzecri's chi-square distance)

  • Data Format: Contingency table, Observations / Variables table (Indicator matrix)
  • Interpretation options (Cluster membership, VACOR listings)

Publications

Markos, A., Menexes, G. & Papadimitriou, I. (2010) The CHIC Analysis Software v1.0. In H. Loracek-Junge & C. Weihs (eds.), Classification as a Tool for Research, Proceedings of the 11th IFCS Conference. Berlin: Springer, 409-416.

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Contact

A bug of a feature? Contact the author to find out.

Wise Words

"The model should follow the data, not the inverse!"

Jean-Paul Benzecri

"Science is presumably cumulative. This means that we all stand, to use Newton's beautiful phrase, "on the shoulders of giants". It also means, fortunately, that we stand on top of a lot of miscellaneous stuff put together by thousands of midgets."

Jan de Leeuw

Support CHIC

If you would like to contribute to the development of CHIC Analysis or make a suggestion you are welcome to send an email at amarkosATuomDOTgr - it will be a great help and will surely be appreciated.