Learn to Create Dot Plots in SPSS With Data From Our World in Data (2020) © 2021 SAGE Publications, Ltd. All Rights Reserved. This PDF has been generated from SAGE Research Methods Datasets. SAGE SAGE Research Methods: Data 2021 SAGE Publications, Ltd. All Rights Reserved. Visualization Learn to Create Dot Plots in SPSS With Data From Our World in Data (2020) How-to Guide for IBM® SPSS® Statistics Software Introduction Data visualization tools are an essential part of the exploratory step in data analysis. For their correct use, it is necessary to take into account the type of variables for which each chart is suitable. In this guide, you will learn how to build dot plots with the SPSS package from a set of real data extracted from a public repository. You will also learn how to change the aesthetic aspects of the graph and how to use it to analyze different hypotheses. Finally, you will have the opportunity to practice what you have learned throughout this guide through a series of proposed exercises. Contents 1. Dot Plots 2. An Example in SPSS: The Rise of Social Media, 2004–2019 2.1 The SPSS Procedure 2.1.1 Loading the Database 2.1.2 Dot Plot 2.1.3 Improvement of the Graphic Appearance of the Dot Plot 2.1.4 Simple Scatter 2.1.5 Connected Dot Plot 2.2 Exploring the Output Page 2 of 24 Learn to Create Dot Plots in SPSS With Data From Our World in Data (2020) SAGE SAGE Research Methods: Data 2021 SAGE Publications, Ltd. All Rights Reserved. Visualization 3. Your Turn 1. Dot Plots Dot plot is a graphical representation that allows you to visualize the frequencies of a qualitative variable. To build a dot plot, it is necessary to count the number of data points falling in each category and draw a stack of dots that number high for each category. This kind of chart is used with small datasets. It is very similar to a barplot because the height of the bar built by the dots is proportional to the frequency of the represented category. 2. An Example in SPSS: The Rise of Social Media, 2004–2019 Social Media appeared in the 2000s. In the last 20 years, different platforms have been appearing and disappearing and have been accumulating a large number of active users per month. This data set collects the number of people using social media platforms from 2002 to 2019 (see Codebook). With this information, it is possible to analyze the number of years that a platform has been active and how many active users it has had per month. Based on this information, our aim is to analyze the main differences in the number of monthly active users and the number of years each platform has remained active. Dot plot is a very useful tool to answer these questions. 2.1 The SPSS Procedure SPSS is a statistical package used by several kinds of researchers for complex statistical data analysis. It has a main menu to build several kinds of charts. In this section, we will focus on knowing the menu for the representation of dot plots of qualitative variables. In addition, we will work with some existing ways to improve the appearance of this type of chart. 2.1.1 Loading the Database Page 3 of 24 Learn to Create Dot Plots in SPSS With Data From Our World in Data (2020) SAGE SAGE Research Methods: Data 2021 SAGE Publications, Ltd. All Rights Reserved. Visualization The database we will use is available in the url: https://ourworldindata.org/internet. It is public and free of charge. To access the database, you must go to “The rise of social media” and press “data” in the bottom menu of the chart. This database is ready to be downloaded in the corresponding dataset in csv format, although it is not necessary to download it to follow this guide. Now, you can open IBM SPSS Statistic software and press ”File...”. In the “File” menu, select “Open -> Data” and then choose the “Monthlyactiveusers.sav” file available in the corresponding dataset folder. At this moment, you can see four variables in the “Variable View”: Entity, Code, Year, and Monthlyactiveusers. In this View, you should view the measure of the variable Year to “Ordinal,” the name of the last variable to Monthlyactiveusers, and the label to Monthly active users. 2.1.2 Dot Plot We show the basic dot plot of variable Entity to show the study period of each of the social media platforms (Figure 1). To this end, go to Graphs/Chart Builder. Below you have all the types of graphs you can use. Then, go to Scatter/Dot, and drag the bottom first symbol to the empty box. In this box, you can indicate the variables to show. To do this, drag the variable Entity to the frame titled X-Axis and click OK. The horizontal axis of the dot plot lists the names of different entities. Each entity consists of a stack of circles. The data from the dot plot are tabulated below. Entity Number of circles Facebook 12 Flickr 10 Friendster 8 Google+ 7 Page 4 of 24 Learn to Create Dot Plots in SPSS With Data From Our World in Data (2020) SAGE SAGE Research Methods: Data 2021 SAGE Publications, Ltd. All Rights Reserved. Visualization Google Buzz 6 Hi5 7 Instagram 6 MySpace 8 Orkut 9 Pinterest 4 Reddit 9 Snapchat 1 TikTok 2 Tumblr 7 Twitter 10 WeChat 8 Weibo 9 WhatsApp 5 YouTube 14 Figure 1. Simple Dot Plot of Social Media Platforms Users Page 5 of 24 Learn to Create Dot Plots in SPSS With Data From Our World in Data (2020) SAGE SAGE Research Methods: Data 2021 SAGE Publications, Ltd. All Rights Reserved. Visualization 2.1.3 Improvement of the Graphic Appearance of the Dot Plot The basic dot plot is customizable by double-clicking on the graph to open the Graph Editor. In this window, you can change some attributes of the plot in order to achieve more elegant representations. Customize the color of the dots: In the Graph Editor, double-click on a dot, and the property window appears. In the marker tab, you can select a color to fill the dots and then press “Apply” (Figure 2). The horizontal axis of the dot plot lists the names of different entities. Each entity consists of a stack of colour circles. The data from the dot plot are tabulated below. Entity Number of circles Facebook 12 Flickr 10 Friendster 8 Page 6 of 24 Learn to Create Dot Plots in SPSS With Data From Our World in Data (2020) SAGE SAGE Research Methods: Data 2021 SAGE Publications, Ltd. All Rights Reserved. Visualization Google+ 7 Google Buzz 6 Hi5 7 Instagram 6 MySpace 8 Orkut 9 Pinterest 4 Reddit 9 Snapchat 1 TikTok 2 Tumblr 7 Twitter 10 WeChat 8 Weibo 9 WhatsApp 5 YouTube 14 Figure 2. Simple Dot Plot of Social Media Platforms Users Customized With Color Page 7 of 24 Learn to Create Dot Plots in SPSS With Data From Our World in Data (2020) SAGE SAGE Research Methods: Data 2021 SAGE Publications, Ltd. All Rights Reserved. Visualization Change the title of the chart: You can change the title in the Graph Editor. Make a simple click on the title and you can write another text on it (Figure 3). The horizontal axis is labelled Social Media Platform and lists the names of different platforms. Each platform consists of a stack of colour circles. The data from the dot plot are tabulated below. Social Media Platform Number of circles Facebook 12 Flickr 10 Friendster 8 Google+ 7 Google Buzz 6 Hi5 7 Page 8 of 24 Learn to Create Dot Plots in SPSS With Data From Our World in Data (2020) SAGE SAGE Research Methods: Data 2021 SAGE Publications, Ltd. All Rights Reserved. Visualization Instagram 6 MySpace 8 Orkut 9 Pinterest 4 Reddit 9 Snapchat 1 TikTok 2 Tumblr 7 Twitter 10 WeChat 8 Weibo 9 WhatsApp 5 YouTube 14 Figure 3. Simple Dot Plot of Social Media Platforms Users Customized With Titles Page 9 of 24 Learn to Create Dot Plots in SPSS With Data From Our World in Data (2020) SAGE SAGE Research Methods: Data 2021 SAGE Publications, Ltd. All Rights Reserved. Visualization Adding a title to each of the axes: In the same Graph Editor, you can change the title of the axes in the same way as the title (Figure 3). Change the orientation of the stacked dots (Figure 4). You can change the orientation of the graph by pressing on the “Transpose chart coordinate system.” The vertical axis is labelled Social Media Platform and lists the names of different platforms. Each platform consists of a row of colour circles. The data from the dot plot are tabulated below. Social Media Platform Number of circles Facebook 12 Flickr 10 Friendster 8 Google+ 7 Page 10 of 24 Learn to Create Dot Plots in SPSS With Data From Our World in Data (2020) SAGE SAGE Research Methods: Data 2021 SAGE Publications, Ltd. All Rights Reserved. Visualization Google Buzz 6 Hi5 7 Instagram 6 MySpace 8 Orkut 9 Pinterest 4 Reddit 9 Snapchat 1 TikTok 2 Tumblr 7 Twitter 10 WeChat 8 Weibo 9 WhatsApp 5 YouTube 14 Figure 4. Horizontal Dot Plot of Social Media Platforms Users Customized Page 11 of 24 Learn to Create Dot Plots in SPSS With Data From Our World in Data (2020) SAGE SAGE Research Methods: Data 2021 SAGE Publications, Ltd. All Rights Reserved.