[PRE REVIEW]: eVAS: A user-friendly electronic Visual Analogue Scale

[editorialbot]

Submitting author: @gouverneurp (Philip Gouverneur)
Repository: https://github.com/gouverneurp/eVAS/
Branch with paper.md (empty if default branch):
Version: 0.1.0
Editor: @britta-wstnr
Reviewers: @haoxue-fan, @amitchell12
Managing EiC: Kevin M. Moerman

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Thanks for submitting your paper to JOSS @gouverneurp. Currently, there isn't a JOSS editor assigned to your paper.

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Software report:

github.com/AlDanial/cloc v 1.88  T=0.04 s (511.2 files/s, 67225.4 lines/s)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Language                     files          blank        comment           code
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Python                           5            240            273            870
INI                              4             20              0            256
Markdown                         3             60              0            254
TeX                              1             17              0            174
Bourne Shell                     3             32             21             99
PowerShell                       1              5              8             19
YAML                             1              1              0             18
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SUM:                            18            375            302           1690
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gitinspector failed to run statistical information for the repository

[editorialbot]

Wordcount for paper.md is 2239

[editorialbot]

👉📄 Download article proof 📄 View article proof on GitHub 📄 👈

[editorialbot]

Reference check summary (note 'MISSING' DOIs are suggestions that need verification):

OK DOIs

- None

MISSING DOIs

- 10.1038/sj.ejcn.1602342 may be a valid DOI for title: The evaluation of an electronic visual analogue scale system for appetite and mood
- 10.1177/0269215517692641 may be a valid DOI for title: Electronic visual analogue scales for pain, fatigue, anxiety and quality of life in people with multiple sclerosis using smartphone and tablet: a reliability and feasibility study
- 10.5435/jaaosglobal-d-17-00088 may be a valid DOI for title: Validation of digital visual analog scale pain scoring with a traditional paper-based visual analog scale in adults
- 10.1111/j.1471-0528.2009.02153.x may be a valid DOI for title: Fear of childbirth according to parity, gestational age, and obstetric history
- 10.3758/brm.41.1.99 may be a valid DOI for title: Adaptive Visual Analog Scales (AVAS): a modifiable software program for the creation, administration, and scoring of visual analog scales
- 10.1007/978-3-030-49666-1_19 may be a valid DOI for title: Classification of Heat-Induced Pain Using Physiological Signals
- 10.3390/s21144838 may be a valid DOI for title: Comparison of feature extraction methods for physiological signals for heat-based pain recognition
- 10.1007/s11136-023-03411-3 may be a valid DOI for title: Use of the visual analogue scale for health state valuation: A scoping review
- 10.1016/j.sjpain.2016.06.012 may be a valid DOI for title: How to analyze the Visual Analogue Scale: Myths, truths and clinical relevance
- 10.2196/18284 may be a valid DOI for title: Comparison of a mobile health electronic visual analog scale app with a traditional paper visual analog scale for pain evaluation: cross-sectional observational study
- 10.1016/j.jbtep.2014.06.004 may be a valid DOI for title: Reliability, validity and sensitivity of a computerized visual analog scale measuring state anxiety
- 10.1016/j.jpain.2023.08.005 may be a valid DOI for title: Differential Effects of Thermal Stimuli in Eliciting Temporal Contrast Enhancement: A Psychophysical Study
- 10.1101/2022.08.09.503102 may be a valid DOI for title: Psychological mechanisms of offset analgesia: The effect of expectancy manipulation

INVALID DOIs

- None

[editorialbot]

Five most similar historical JOSS papers:

PsychoPhysioCollector: A Smartphone-Based Data Collection App for Psychophysiological Research
Submitting author: @sbogutzky
Handling editor: @arfon (Active)
Reviewers: @davclark
Similarity score: 0.8057

DscoreApp: An user-friendly web application for computing the Implicit Association Test D-score
Submitting author: @OttaviaE
Handling editor: @alexhanna (Retired)
Reviewers: @benmarwick, @tomfaulkenberry
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The AutoActive Research Environment
Submitting author: @kasbot
Handling editor: @prashjha (Active)
Reviewers: @AustinTSchaffer, @erik-whiting
Similarity score: 0.8032

KADE: A desktop application for Q methodology
Submitting author: @shawnbanasick
Handling editor: @alexhanna (Retired)
Reviewers: @davekinkead
Similarity score: 0.8028

Kinematics-vis: A Visualization Tool for the Mathematics of Human Motion
Submitting author: @heath-henninger
Handling editor: @adi3 (Active)
Reviewers: @destogl, @nnadeau
Similarity score: 0.8020

⚠️ Note to editors: If these papers look like they might be a good match, click through to the review issue for that paper and invite one or more of the authors before considering asking the reviewers of these papers to review again for JOSS.

[gouverneurp]

@editorialbot check references

[editorialbot]

Reference check summary (note 'MISSING' DOIs are suggestions that need verification):

OK DOIs

- 10.1007/s43441-022-00376-2 is OK
- 10.1038/sj.ejcn.1602342 is OK
- 10.1177/0269215517692641 is OK
- 10.5435/jaaosglobal-d-17-00088 is OK
- 10.1007/s11245-020-09724-z is OK
- 10.1111/j.1471-0528.2008.02002.x is OK
- 10.1016/j.pnpbp.2008.02.002 is OK
- 10.3758/BRM.41.1.99 is OK
- 10.1007/978-3-030-49666-1_19 is OK
- 10.3390/s21144838 is OK
- 10.1007/s11136-023-03411-3 is OK
- 10.1016/j.sjpain.2016.06.012 is OK
- 10.2196/18284 is OK
- 10.1016/j.jbtep.2014.06.004 is OK
- 10.1016/j.jpain.2023.08.005 is OK
- 10.1371/journal.pone.0280579 is OK
- 10.1002/ejp.1971 is OK

MISSING DOIs

- None

INVALID DOIs

- None

[gouverneurp]

From the list of similar articles, PsychoPhysioCollector: A Smartphone-Based Data Collection App for Psychophysiological Research seems to be the best match in terms of content. So @sbogutzky (Simon Bogutzky) and @davclark might be a good fit for reviewing eVAS. Unfortunately, the programming languages of the two projects are different.

[gouverneurp]

@editorialbot generate pdf

[editorialbot]

👉📄 Download article proof 📄 View article proof on GitHub 📄 👈

[editorialbot]

Five most similar historical JOSS papers:

PsychoPhysioCollector: A Smartphone-Based Data Collection App for Psychophysiological Research
Submitting author: @sbogutzky
Handling editor: @arfon (Active)
Reviewers: @davclark
Similarity score: 0.8057

DscoreApp: An user-friendly web application for computing the Implicit Association Test D-score
Submitting author: @OttaviaE
Handling editor: @alexhanna (Retired)
Reviewers: @benmarwick, @tomfaulkenberry
Similarity score: 0.8045

The AutoActive Research Environment
Submitting author: @kasbot
Handling editor: @prashjha (Active)
Reviewers: @AustinTSchaffer, @erik-whiting
Similarity score: 0.8032

KADE: A desktop application for Q methodology
Submitting author: @shawnbanasick
Handling editor: @alexhanna (Retired)
Reviewers: @davekinkead
Similarity score: 0.8028

Kinematics-vis: A Visualization Tool for the Mathematics of Human Motion
Submitting author: @heath-henninger
Handling editor: @adi3 (Active)
Reviewers: @destogl, @nnadeau
Similarity score: 0.8020

⚠️ Note to editors: If these papers look like they might be a good match, click through to the review issue for that paper and invite one or more of the authors before considering asking the reviewers of these papers to review again for JOSS.

[gouverneurp]

From the list of people, several people could be candidates for reviewers.
For example:
vankesteren
bbortey9
sneakers-the-rat
JerryChiaRuiChang

[davclark]

I don't tend to be that active on GitHub these days, so I apologize in advance that I'm likely to be slow in responding. But I agree that I have a strong understanding of this space. I want to endorse the notability of the offering given the fact that VAS is basically psychometrically superior to the ubiquitous likert scale, but everyone still uses likert scales. I can probably provide refs if you really want, but as an ex-academic, I of course have limited access to the literature! That said, the paper provides at least one reference on the value of the VAS.

I actually wrote my own multi-lingual system for displaying forms, including VAS. It would take definitions like this and render them with this logic. It was a pretty bespoke / custom setup, including the fact that I hand-edited the css that was located in the otherwise computer-generated outputs. Tl;dr, implementing the VAS is non-trivial as it is unfortunately not a common metric - even qualtrics doesn't provide the level of easy customization of eVAS.

eVAS provides a rich framework for displaying various kinds of VAS questions. The only thing I didn't see was the ability to hide the thumb (slider widget) prior to a press, as this can anchor responses. I had a quick read of the paper, and I salute the authors for packaging their software to be simple and accessible to non-programmers.

I unfortunately do not have time to evaluate the software directly. If someone else could help with this, that would be ideal. But if needed, I can try to find time perhaps next week or so.

[gouverneurp]

Thank you for your reply and feedback!
Would you be so kind as to comment in more detail on what you meant by "The only thing I didn't see was the ability to hide the thumb (slider widget) prior to a press, as this can anchor responses". Once I fully understand the idea, I can implement it and add it to eVAS.

[davclark]

I had a quick look and couldn't find a citation. I'm guessing you know the general idea of anchoring, but basically, any identifiable location in a response field will tend to "magnetize" the distribution of responses towards that location.

So, one idea is that you hide the slider (called a thumb in browser land) until someone clicks or touches the range slider. CSS for webkit-compatible browsers is here:

https://github.com/glass-bead-labs/simple-forms/blob/master/rendered/simple-forms-style.css#L39-L47

Docs here: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/::-webkit-slider-thumb

Certainly, I would not consider that feature a blocker for publication! It's very nice how you've provided a great deal of customization.

[gouverneurp]

Thanks again for the clarification! I have tried to implement it and added it to the Python code in the repository. I still need to deploy the changes to the various standalone builds in the future.

[Kevin-Mattheus-Moerman]

@gouverneurp I have just removed the query-scope label as this work was found to potentially be in scope for JOSS. We will now aim to find and assign a handling editor.

[Kevin-Mattheus-Moerman]

@editorialbot invite @britta-wstnr as editor

[editorialbot]

Invitation to edit this submission sent!

[Kevin-Mattheus-Moerman]

Hi @britta-wstnr would you be able to help edit this one?

[britta-wstnr]

@Kevin-Mattheus-Moerman sure, I can take over!

[britta-wstnr]

@editorialbot assign @britta-wstnr as editor

[editorialbot]

Assigned! @britta-wstnr is now the editor

[britta-wstnr]

@editorialbot check references

[editorialbot]

Reference check summary (note 'MISSING' DOIs are suggestions that need verification):

OK DOIs

- 10.1007/s43441-022-00376-2 is OK
- 10.1038/sj.ejcn.1602342 is OK
- 10.1177/0269215517692641 is OK
- 10.5435/jaaosglobal-d-17-00088 is OK
- 10.1007/s11245-020-09724-z is OK
- 10.1111/j.1471-0528.2008.02002.x is OK
- 10.1016/j.pnpbp.2008.02.002 is OK
- 10.3758/BRM.41.1.99 is OK
- 10.1007/978-3-030-49666-1_19 is OK
- 10.3390/s21144838 is OK
- 10.1007/s11136-023-03411-3 is OK
- 10.1016/j.sjpain.2016.06.012 is OK
- 10.2196/18284 is OK
- 10.1016/j.jbtep.2014.06.004 is OK
- 10.1016/j.jpain.2023.08.005 is OK
- 10.1371/journal.pone.0280579 is OK
- 10.1002/ejp.1971 is OK

MISSING DOIs

- No DOI given, and none found for title: Handbook of Research Methods in Personality Psycho...

INVALID DOIs

- None

[britta-wstnr]

Hi @gouverneurp,
I will be handling your submission.
I see you already fixed the DOIs, great! ✨ I will start inviting reviewers soon, I see you already suggested a few names in the thread, thanks! I will be back shortly! 🙂 🌱

[gouverneurp]

Hi @britta-wstnr,
Thank you for your help! 🙂
Let me know, if I can do anything else.

[britta-wstnr]

Hi @KirstensGitHub and @vankesteren 👋

Would you be willing to review this submission:
eVAS: A user-friendly electronic Visual Analogue Scale
for The Journal of Open Source Software (JOSS)?

The review concerns the software eVAS and a short paper about it. The review happens fully here on GitHub.

You can learn more about the the review process and our conflict of interest policy in the reviewer guidelines here.

If you are available to review this submission, please let me know and I can add you as a reviewer. The review process will start (in a separate GitHub issue) once a sufficient number of reviewers have been found.

Thank you!
Britta

[britta-wstnr]

Hi @davclark - it looks like you already had a good look at this software and you already gave some feedback. We are in not hurried right now to start the review process, given that we are still looking for a sufficient number of reviewers to even be able to start that step. Do you think you would be able to formally review this for us some time in the upcoming weeks?

Here at JOSS we use a check-box system for reviews that would help you along in the process.

[vankesteren]

Sorry, no time right now!

[britta-wstnr]

I understand @vankesteren - Thanks for getting back to me!

[davclark]

I might be able to do some time in April, but I'm pretty underwater at the moment! So, I'd say keep me as a pinch-reviewer in case you get to N-1 but struggle to get to the needed N.

[britta-wstnr]

Thanks @davclark, I understand. 🙏
ping @KirstensGitHub - a kind reminder of my invite (see this GitHub comment)

[britta-wstnr]

I've also sent out a couple of e-mails to invite potential reviewers.

[britta-wstnr]

Just to let you know: I am still trying to find reviewers via e-mail.

[gouverneurp]

Thanks for trying and for the updates!
If there is anything we can do, please contact us.

[britta-wstnr]

Hi @gouverneurp, finding reviewers is going slowly ... If you can think of any possible reviewers who are not in the data base yet, would you mind suggesting them to me via e-mail? britta.wstnr (AT) gmail.com
Thanks so much! 🙏

[britta-wstnr]

Hi @davclark,

any chance you would be available in the upcoming time as per your last comment?

[davclark]

@britta-wstnr I am basically overcomitted already until maybe mid-August. Sorry!

[britta-wstnr]

I see, thanks for letting us know @davclark! 🙏

[britta-wstnr]

@haoxue-fan and @amitchell12 both have agreed via email to review this submission - thanks a lot! 🙏
With that, we can move this paper into the actual reviewing process. 🌱 That will close this issue and start a new one for the actual review - you will get pinged there and there will be explanations how to proceed.

[britta-wstnr]

@editorialbot add @haoxue-fan as reviewer

[editorialbot]

@haoxue-fan added to the reviewers list!

[britta-wstnr]

@editorialbot add @amitchell12 as reviewer

[editorialbot]

@amitchell12 added to the reviewers list!

[britta-wstnr]

@editorialbot start review

[editorialbot]

OK, I've started the review over in #6876.