| name | commres-data-analysis |
| description | Use when executing and reporting the analysis for a Communication Research (CR) manuscript so it survives expert, double-anonymized review — ANOVA/regression/SEM, mediation/moderation with honest uncertainty, reliability, and APA statistical reporting. Guides analysis norms; it does not fabricate results. |
Data Analysis (commres-data-analysis)
CR reviewers are quantitatively sophisticated, and the journal expects APA-style statistical
reporting (effect sizes and standard deviations, not stars alone). Analyze as if your numbers will
be scrutinized — because they will. This skill covers execution and reporting norms; design decisions
live in commres-research-design, and deposit live in commres-transparency-and-data.
When to trigger
- Running main and supporting analyses; building the Results section
- A reviewer asked for robustness, an alternative specification, or a mediation re-analysis
- Reconciling preregistered vs. exploratory analyses
- Making the analysis reproducible before deposit
Analysis norms CR expects
- APA statistical reporting. Report effect sizes (d, η²ₚ, R², standardized β) and dispersion
(SDs, CIs), test statistics with df, and exact p where feasible — not significance stars alone.
- Right model for the design. ANOVA/ANCOVA for factorial experiments; OLS/logistic regression
with proper controls; SEM/CFA for latent constructs; multilevel models for nested data
(e.g., messages within participants, students within classrooms).
- Mediation/moderation done right. For PROCESS/SEM models, justify the causal ordering; report
indirect effects with bootstrap CIs; for moderated mediation report the index and conditional
indirect effects; acknowledge cross-sectional limits on process claims.
- Report uncertainty honestly. Confidence intervals and effect magnitudes; interpret the
substantive meaning of the estimate, not just whether it crossed .05.
- Robustness that probes, not decorates. Show specifications that could break the result
(alternative measures, covariate sets, estimators, exclusions), and say what you learn.
- Measurement and reliability. Report scale reliability (alpha/omega) and, for content analysis,
intercoder reliability; show results are not an artifact of a coding/scaling choice.
- Preregistration discipline. Clearly separate confirmatory (registered) from exploratory
analyses; reconcile and justify deviations; correct for multiple comparisons where you test many.
Computational / text-as-data specifics
- Document model/version, hyperparameters, seeds, and validation against human-labeled samples.
- For topic models/embeddings/LLM pipelines, report stability and a validation step; don't treat
outputs as ground truth.
Reproducibility while you work (not at the end)
- One master script regenerates every table and figure from the (raw or constructed) data.
- Set and report seeds for bootstrap, simulation, and any stochastic step.
- Pin software/package versions (
renv.lock, requirements.txt; note SPSS/Mplus/PROCESS versions).
- Keep table/figure numbers in the manuscript matched to script outputs.
Execution bridge (StatsPAI / Stata MCP)
Run the battery, don't just enumerate it. Full map:
execution-with-mcp. Communication Research is experiment- and survey-heavy; emphasize randomization inference, mediation done right, and family-wise corrections.
- Many outcomes / specifications:
romano_wolf (step-down FWER) or
benjamini_hochberg — report the adjusted threshold.
- OVB sensitivity:
oster_delta / sensemakr.
- Inference:
wild_cluster_bootstrap (few clusters), twoway_cluster / conley;
multilevel data → cluster at the right level.
- Re-fit off one handle:
audit_result(result_id) lists the missing checks and the
exact suggest_function for each.
- Exhibits:
etable / did_summary_to_latex from the handle — no retyped numbers.
Keep the decisive checks in the body and the exhaustive battery in the supplement. See
the executed chain in the JF execution walkthrough.
Anti-patterns
- Stars-only tables with no effect sizes, SDs, or intervals (an APA-reporting failure at CR)
- Reporting a mediation without bootstrap CIs, or a moderated mediation without the index
- "Robustness" that only reruns near-identical specs to manufacture stability
- p-hacking / fishing for a significant interaction; HARKing exploratory results into hypotheses
- Reporting a content analysis without intercoder reliability
- A Results section whose numbers the code cannot reproduce
Evidence pass for Communication Research
Treat this skill as an executable review pass, not a prose hint. First lock the communication process,
the measured constructs, the study design, and the inferential claim; then judge whether the
manuscript answers CR's real reader: a quantitatively trained communication scientist who weighs
theory, measurement validity, identification, and effect interpretation.
- Do the pass: Audit before polishing prose — model choice, effect sizes, uncertainty, mediation
CIs, reliability, multiple-testing, missingness, and reproducibility must be visible.
- Return a ledger: give
claim / evidence / risk / manuscript location rows so the next agent
edits rather than rediscovers the issue.
- Sibling guard: Journal of Communication (all-paradigm), Human Communication Research
(interpersonal), New Media & Society (digital). If a sibling owns the contribution, re-route
before polishing format.
- Stop condition: do not give submission-ready advice until
resources/official-source-map.md
has been checked and the manuscript has one concrete fix for the largest venue-specific risk.
Output format
【Main estimate】magnitude + effect size + interval + substantive meaning
【Model】ANOVA / regression / SEM / multilevel — matches the design?
【Mediation/moderation】indirect effect + bootstrap CI / index of moderated mediation?
【Robustness】specs that could break it → what held
【Reliability】scale (alpha/omega) / intercoder reliability reported?
【Confirmatory vs exploratory】clearly separated? MHT-adjusted where needed?
【Reproducible】master script + seeds + pinned versions? [Y/N]
【Next】commres-tables-figures
Supplementary resources
