Transmodal Analysis (TMA) is a framework for analyzing complex, multimodal data in Quantitative Ethnography, with key readings and the TMA R package.
Transmodal analysis (TMA) is a computational framework for analyzing complex, multimodal data in Quantitative Ethnography. Building on ENA, TMA integrates multiple data streams while accounting for differences in temporal scale and modality characteristics, producing more robust and interpretable findings.
| Resource | Author(s) and year | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Transmodal Analysis | Shaffer, D., Wang, Y., & Ruis, A. (2025) | If you want to analyze multiple types of data at once, this paper explains how TMA can be used to study multiple types of data, such as dialogue, video, and chat logs, while preserving their unique patterns and timelines. |
| TMA R Package | Marquart, C., Ashiq, M., & Shaffer, D. (2026) | This R package lets you clean and prepare complex, multi-stream data, with control over how different modalities connect, so they can be easily modeled and visualized using other packages like rENA and rONA. |
| TMA R Demo code (.Rmd file) | Wang, Y. (2025) | This file demonstrates how to construct a TMA model in R using the TMA R package with a demo dataset. |
For greater flexibility and more advanced analyses, try TMA in R. The rTMA package supports the same core analytic process as the ENA Web Tool while allowing you to work directly with your data, customize analyses, and build more transparent and reproducible QE workflows.
Once your coded data is ready, you can use the TMA package to conduct your custom analysis from scratch. You can also import your dataset from the ENA Web Tool and continue further analysis. To export a dataset from the web tool, click Sets in the left sidebar, hover over the dataset you want to export, click the three-dot menu, and then select Export Set & Data. Unzip your files, and you are ready to go. Use the exported R script to reproduce your analysis on the web tool, or create your own script.
The TMA package provides functions for TMA. For a comprehensive description, see the documentation for the TMA package (an HTML version is available here).
| Documentation | ||
|---|---|---|
| QE R Package Repository | Index of QE R packages. | |
| TMA: Transmodal Analysis | Marquart, C. L., Ashiq, M. H., & Shaffer, D. W. | Documentation page for the TMA package. |
Browse our Zotero library for a comprehensive, continually updated collection of Quantitative Ethnography research.