PCAT FAQ

PCAT is Web-based software engineered for the task of reviewing public comments as well as many other types of textual data. If you have lots of digitized text, you can form a team of peers, create a project, upload data, discover important themes and issues, and organize your analysis with PCAT. This system is the end product of ten years of NSF-funded public comment classification work by Dr. Stuart W. Shulman, who has published numerous peer-reviewed papers on the subject.

A few reasons to try PCAT:

• The system is fast, secure and scalable.
• This is currently a free service in beta testing based on award-winning research software.
• It extends carefully researched principles of efficiency, accuracy, validity, usability, and transparency.
• It leverages a novel new approach to integrating credentials and distributed work flow.
• It is equally useful to public and private actors and accessible to all.
• It allows you to show or share your work with anyone on the system, or keep it private.
• It deals a blow to the tyranny of carpel tunnel causing mouse-clicks.

You don't! PCAT is a Web-based system that exists in the cloud. You can use it anywhere you have a Web browser and an Internet connection.

Any modern Web browser that utilizes JavaScript can use PCAT. We rigorously test using the latest versions of FireFox and Internet Explorer, but have also used PCAT with Safari and Google Chrome. PCAT should work well with browsers that use screen reader software. We recommend that you use PCAT with a screen size of at least 1024x768.

We are striving for Section 508 compliance in our interface, and if a section is not compliant already, it will be in the near future. Down the road we may develop a mobile version of PCAT for use with your smart-phone as well.

Coding is a human-centered technique for sorting through text. Coders (or analysts) discover, tag, and write about text passages that are automatically presented in the coding viewer. PCAT applies two basic techniques, automated loading of text passages and keystrokes to record coding choices, to significantly ease the physical burden and management tasks associated with reviewing lots of text.

The "code & retrieve" model allows teams to sort comments into categories for analysis while reducing the total number of carpel tunnel-causing mouse movements and clicks. Analysts can review the results on screen or export the coded text as part of writing a regulatory response. The PCAT system keeps track of everything, including which comments have been read or coded, and it allows you find, retrieve, and utilize what you are looking for. The inclusion of a new "search–>bucket–>dataset" work flow makes it possible to quickly divide the task of comment analysis across different themes. This streamlines the process of assigning unique or overlapping sub-parts of the agency archive to different peers in the team.

During the coding process, you can introduce bookmarks and write associated memos about passages of text to which you want to return. Often, these memos include snippets of highly relevant "trigger" text that "triggered" the bookmark itself. Memos can be searched, reviewed, coded, and exported in .csv, .rtf, .xml, and HTML formats. Coders can designate each memo as either private (between the owner of the dataset and the peer who is the author of the memo) or public (shared with every peer assigned to a dataset). In the "Validations" module, the PCAT system simplifies the task of developing coherent and consistent coding practices. PCAT personnel use the adjudication process to better train coders and thereby improve coding and code definition validity.

The PCAT Privacy and Terms of Service can be found here:
http://pcat.qdap.net/privacy.aspx
http://pcat.qdap.net/terms.aspx

From the PCAT home page, click on the “register for a free account” link and follow the steps. After you have registered and have verified your email address, you will be given the option to upgrade your account to a paid subscription or to continue using your free account. Note that you can upgrade your account to a paid subscription at any time. See the section “How can I upgrade my account?” for further details.

PCAT Has four individual account levels, as well as group (“Enterprise”) accounts:

• Free: Users receive basic search, bucket, code, and memo features; 1 GB of data storage; and standard priority email support. The first 30 days of service include: access to peer networks; advanced search and tag cloud tools, advanced bucket, code, memo, and reporting capabilities; and advanced comparison and validation tools.
• Basic: Services include: basic search and tag cloud tools; basic bucket, code, memo, and reporting capabilities; basic comparison and validation tools; up to 5 network peers; 5 GB of storage; and upgraded priority email support.
• Pro: Services include: advanced search and tag cloud tools; advanced bucket, code, memo, and reporting capabilities; advanced comparison, validation, and crowd source tools; up to 50 peers; 15 GB of data storage; and high-priority email support.
• Pro Plus: Services include: advanced search and tag cloud tools; advanced bucket, code, and memo capabilities; unlimited peers; 50 GB of storage; access to “Sifter” services including duplicate detection, near-duplicate detection, threshold-sensitive clustering, offensive language detection, summarization, sentiment, and novelty tools; and high-priority email support.

Note that Sifter’s summarization, sentiment, and novelty tools will come online in January 2011.
Enterprise licenses are described in the "What are Enterprise Accounts?" section.

Enterprise account licenses include: all PCAT Pro Plus features and Sifter services; agency or firm brand customization; and licensee Administrator control of the distribution of individual licenses.

Additional Enterprise "Sifter" services include: unlimited data storage for all users, exclusive options for on-site and Web-based training, telephone support, and specialized management and programmatic support.

Enterprise licensing comes in three levels:

• 50 user licenses: $1,299.00 per month
• 100 seat licenses: $1,999.00 per month
• Unlimited seat licenses: $2,999.00 per month

Please contact us directly if you are interesting in setting up a PCAT Enterprise Account.

Federal agencies may obtain Texifter's FISMA-compliant cloud-based software with a GSA-approved Terms of Service agreement directly through our business partners AEEC, LLC. AEEC holds an 8(a) STARS GWAC. 8(a) STARS offers directed order authority on task orders up to $3.5 million; ease of use with limited protestability; procurement of hardware, software, and services; and cost savings. If you have any questions regarding 8(a) STARS GWAC, you may contact Mr. Howard Innis at (816) 823-4658 or howard.innis@gsa.gov.

Each pricing level is listed as a per-month rate. Subscriptions are also available at discounted rates: 3-month subscription (5% discount); 6-month subscription (8% discount); one year subscription (10% discount).

• Free Accounts: Nothing; they are free!
• Basic: $9.99 per month
• Pro: $14.99 per month
• Pro Plus: $24.99 per month
• Enterprise: See “What are Enterprise Accounts” for price rates.

All subscription payments take place in an encrypted and secured section of the Web site. PCAT utilizes a SSL Certificate enabling encryption up to 256 bits and is compatible with all major modern browsers, so when you place your subscription order via the PCAT Web site, it is secure and all personal information remains encrypted. Your credit card information is not kept on our servers in any form or manner with the exception of the card holder's name, expiration date, and the last four digits for your reference. Once you enter your credit card information and the subscription is started, your credit card information is transferred to our payment gateway with Authorize.net and is stored there in a secured data store that adheres to the PCI Security Standard's recommendations as outlined in the PCI Data Security Standard.

We accept Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Discover credit cards for our secure order processing.

Also, see the pricing chart for levels and features.

That is up to you. The PCAT platform has no required or standard workflow. Some users will read and browse first. Others will search or code first. PCAT helps you create coding schemes (using tag clouds or user-defined codes) and implement the desired coding scheme alone or in peer groups. Detailed instructions for using the PCAT system can be found on the PCAT Help Wiki at http://pcat-help.qdap.net/

It sure does. If you currently have an FDMS bulk download or a large collection emails in Lotus Notes or Microsoft Outlook and you suspect it has mass email campaign duplicates, you can now run the de-duplication and clustering algorithms inside PCAT. Here is an example:

Users of PCAT can relax the threshold for identifying duplicates and sample “clusters” of near-duplicate comments generated by form letter and talking point campaigns. This step makes it easier to document the dimensions of the central “talking points” while also focusing attention on unique or otherwise unexpected contributions. Here is an example of how we highlight edits to form letters:

Please contact the FDMS Administrator for the agency that owns the public comment data. Standard PCAT-ready bulk downloads are available upon request. Sample FDMS archives are available on PCAT once you are logged in.

For additional help, see the PCATHelp Wiki, our online video tutorials, or for all PCAT account holders, you can always email help@qdap.net for questions that are not answered in any of these places.

If you wish to delete your PCAT account, log in to your account and go to the User Account section. At the bottom of the screen, press the "Delete Account" button. You will be asked to confirm the deletion of the account.

When you delete your account, all projects and associated archives, buckets, and datasets will also be removed. Your account will also be removed from any peer lists. Any coding, annotations, or memos you may have created for other peer datasets will remain intact, and your user information will be kept for historical purposes (including your order history) for Texifter's use only and will not be displayed or given to any third party.

If you have any active paid subscriptions at the time of deletion, the subscription payments will be suspended for the account.

Once an account is deleted, it cannot be recovered. If you wish to log onto PCAT again, you will need to create a new account.

If you have a free PCAT account and have not logged onto the system for a period of six months, you will be sent a warning via email that your account is inactive. If you wish to keep your account active, you will have 30 days to log on to your account. Once you log in, the six-month inactivity timer will reset. If you do not log on within the 30 day allotment, your account and any uploaded data will be deleted. Please see “Deleting Your Account” for details.

By default, all accounts on PCAT are free account and as such are limited in the capabilities within the system. If you wish to upgrade your account at any time, log into your account and go into the User Account screen. Click on the "Upgrade Account" button. From here, you will be taken to our secure purchasing section where you will be able to create a paid subscription for the service.

All subscription payments take place in an encrypted and secured section of the Web site. PCAT utilizes a SSL Certificate enabling encryption up to 256 bits and is compatible with all major modern browsers, so when you place your subscription order via the PCAT Web site, it is secure and all personal information remains encrypted. Your credit card information is not kept on our servers in any form or manner with the exception of the card holder's name, expiration date, and the last four digits for your reference. Once you enter your credit card information and the subscription is started, your credit card information is transferred to our payment gateway with Authorize.net and is stored there in a secured data store that adheres to the PCI Security Standard's recommendations as outlined in the PCI Data Security Standard.

We accept Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Discover credit cards for our secure order processing.

Yes. You can downgrade your account at any time by logging in and going to your User Account screen. Click on the "Downgrade Account" button to choose the level you wish to downgrade your account to. If you are currently in a paid subscription period, your current subscription will end at the end of the current subscription term, and your downgraded account will activate at the expiration of your paid subscription. If you are downgrading to another paid level, the new subscription will begin at the end of the current subscription term, however, you will be immediately charged for the first term of the new subscription at the time of downgrading. If you are downgrading to a free account from a paid subscription, your current level of service will remain until the end of your current subscription period.

It is important to remember that all levels of service have different storage space. If you downgrade to a lower level of service, but are using more storage space than the new level of service allows, you will have 30 days after the end of your current subscription term to remove any data above the your level of storage allotment. If after 30 days you are still over your allotted level of storage, the system will automatically delete archives from your account (starting with the oldest first) until you are under the level of your allotment. You will be notified of this action via in-system notification and email at 30 days, 10 days, 5 days, and 1 day before the automatic action takes place. Before the 30 days are up, we recommend that you download a copy of your archived data (when applicable) to a personal storage device.

If you downgrade to a lower level of service and you are over your allotment of networkable peers in the system after the 30 day notice, PCAT will hide your connected peers in reverse alphabetical order until you are under the limit of the allotted number of peers.

At this time, Texifter does not offer refunds for any subscription accounts. It is responsibility of the account holder to cancel unwanted paid subscriptions. See the "Cancellation Policy" for details. For Enterprise cancellations, please contact Texifter, LLC.

Since PCAT is a Web-based service, there is no return policy; there is no software for you to install!

If you are currently a paid subscriber, when you log in to your User Account information screen, you can press the "Cancel Subscription" button to cancel any active subscriptions and downgrade to a Free account. See the "Can I downgrade my account?" section for more information.

Once you downgrade, you will retain the privileges of your current subscription level until the end of your current subscription term (1 month, 3 months, 6 months, or 1 year). Once your current subscription term ends, your cancellation will be processed.

Cancelling your subscription is not the same as deleting your account. Please see "Deleting your Account."

PCAT is entirely Web based, so there is no physical object or software to install or receive. You may, however, download a copy of your archived data (when applicable) at any time without charge when logged onto your account. We cannot assist in recovering any data for accounts that have been deleted.

Texifter designs and hosts FISMA-compliant cloud computing solutions for searching, sorting, and classifying large amounts of unstructured text. Our first products, the Public Comment Analysis Toolkit (PCAT) and Sifter Web Services are tailored to meet the analytic needs of federal rule writers. Our research and development is aimed at creating a Web platform that is fully Section 508 accessible and which brings topic modeling, sentiment detection, and other information retrieval and natural language technologies into an active learning loop that leverages user-created analytic choices to improve our algorithms. We anticipate training and support services complimenting the enterprise license model.

From biomedical, public health, and educational research, to studies in the behavioral, computational, and social sciences, effective qualitative data analysis plays a critical role. For this reason, we have created the Qualitative Data Analysis Program (QDAP) labs at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and the University of Pittsburgh. Accurate and reliable coding using computers is central to the qualitative research process. For new and experienced content analysis researchers, learning advanced project management skills adds hours of struggle in trial-and-error sessions. Experienced QDAP coders and project managers deliver the large-scale, value-added annotated data you need in a timely and expert manner.

Visit QDAP-UMass at http://www.umass.edu/qdap/

For sales inquiries, please contact: Dr. Stuart Shulman (stu@texifter.com)

For ordering, general support, and help using PCAT: help@qdap.net

For technical support or bug related issues: bugs@qdap.net

For billing support: billing@pcat.qdap.net

Mailing address:
Texifter, LLC
74 Overlook Dr.
Amherst, MA 01002

Phone support is also available for Enterprise users with an active contract.