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Provides a user-facing workflow for three common expert-panel tasks:

  • mode = "relevance": bounded ordinal relevance ratings, combining Aiken's V (with Penfield-Giacobbi score intervals) and CVI/modified kappa.

  • mode = "essentiality": Lawshe CVR with exact binomial critical values.

  • mode = "congruence": Rovinelli-Hambleton item-objective congruence.

Quantitative results are presented as evidence for item review rather than as a substitute for expert comments, construct coverage, comprehensibility, or other parts of a content-validity argument.

Usage

expert_validity(
  data,
  mode = c("relevance", "essentiality", "congruence"),
  lo = 1,
  hi = 4,
  relevance_cut = NULL,
  N = NULL,
  alpha = 0.05,
  na.rm = FALSE,
  target_col = "target_objective"
)

Arguments

data

Ratings data. For relevance, a judge-by-item numeric matrix/data frame. For essentiality, either a judge-by-item 0/1 matrix/data frame or a vector of essential counts. For congruence, a long data frame accepted by ioc().

mode

One of "relevance", "essentiality", or "congruence".

lo, hi

Rating-scale bounds for relevance mode.

relevance_cut

Lowest rating treated as relevant for CVI. Defaults to hi - 1, e.g., 3 on a 1-4 scale or 4 on a 1-5 scale.

N

Panel size for essential-count vector input.

alpha

Inferential/CI alpha level.

na.rm

Permit itemwise/cellwise missing ratings where supported.

target_col

In congruence mode, optional column identifying each item's intended objective. If absent, IOC cells are returned descriptively.

Value

An object of class contentvalid_expert and contentvalid_workflow. All flagship workflow objects expose the common components results, scale_summary, settings, design, and details. The historical top-level scale component is retained as a compatibility alias for scale_summary. Results include a standardized status field while retaining mode-specific recommendation wording.

References

Penfield, R. D., & Giacobbi, P. R., Jr. (2004). Applying a score confidence interval to Aiken's item content-relevance index. Measurement in Physical Education and Exercise Science, 8(4), 213-225. doi:10.1207/s15327841mpee0804_3

Ayre, C., & Scally, A. J. (2014). Critical values for Lawshe's content validity ratio: Revisiting the original methods of calculation. Measurement and Evaluation in Counseling and Development, 47(1), 79-86. doi:10.1177/0748175613513808

Polit, D. F., Beck, C. T., & Owen, S. V. (2007). Is the CVI an acceptable indicator of content validity? Research in Nursing & Health, 30(4), 459-467. doi:10.1002/nur.20199

Examples

relevance <- matrix(
  c(4,4,4,3, 4,4,3,4, 3,4,4,4, 4,3,4,4),
  nrow = 4,
  dimnames = list(NULL, paste0("Item", 1:4))
)
fit <- expert_validity(relevance, mode = "relevance", lo = 1, hi = 4)
fit
#> contentvalidR expert-panel analysis
#> -----------------------------------
#> Mode: relevance 
#> Items: 4 | Experts/item: 4 
#> Mean Aiken V: 0.917 | S-CVI/Ave: 1 | S-CVI/UA: 1 
#> Strong support: 4 | Support: 0 | Review: 0 
#> 
#>   item N     V ci_low ci_high I_CVI kappa_mod recommendation
#>  Item1 4 0.917  0.646   0.985     1         1 Strong support
#>  Item2 4 0.917  0.646   0.985     1         1 Strong support
#>  Item3 4 0.917  0.646   0.985     1         1 Strong support
#>  Item4 4 0.917  0.646   0.985     1         1 Strong support
#> 
#> CVI thresholds shown by the workflow are common panel-size guidelines, not universal validity cutoffs.
#> 
#> Use quantitative indices alongside expert comments, construct coverage, and comprehensibility review.
summary(fit)
#> Summary of expert-panel content-validity evidence
#> ---------------------------------------------
#> Mode: relevance 
#> Supported: 4 | Review: 0
#> No items were flagged by the workflow's quantitative review rules.
#> 
#> These summaries support, but do not replace, qualitative content review.