----------------------- sirt NEWS -----------------------------

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sirt: Supplementary Item Response Theory

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Alexander Robitzsch
Federal Institute for Educational Research, Innovation and 
Development of the Austrian School System (BIFIE)
Salzburg (Austria)
http://www.bifie.at

See also URL: 
https://sites.google.com/site/alexanderrobitzsch/software

Questions or suggestions about sirt can be sent to:
a.robitzsch /-\ bifie.at

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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
CHANGELOG sirt
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


---
Versions 0.44 -- 2013-04-27
---
x fixed a bug in calculation of marginal parameters for testlet model
x included the partially compensatory item response model
  (irtmodel='partcomp' in 'smirt')
x speeded rasch.copula functions a bit
x included argument increment.factor in rasch.copula to improve
  convergence behavior
x fixed a bug in rasch.mirtlc in saved parameter estimates for
   models with different initial estimates (n.starts>0)
x included function for calculating marginal item parameters for
   testlet (bifactor) model ('testlet.marginalized')
x extended 'modelfit.sirt' for objects of class tam.mml, tam.mml.2pl
   and tam.fa (from the TAM package)
x fixed a bug in parsing residual matrix from NOHARM output in 'R2noharm'
x extended output in mcmc.list. descriptives
x changed chi square p value in R2noharm in Values according to summary
x included R implementation of NOHARM ('noharm.sirt')
x modelfit.sirt also allows for objects of class noharm.sirt
x included Divgi estimation method of tetrachoric correlation
x included maximum likelihood estimation of polychoric correlation

* included/modified datasets: ---
* included/modified examples: data.wide2long (1), smirt (3), modelfit.sirt (1),
  R2noharm (4), mcmc.list.descriptives (1), noharm.sirt (1,2), data.read,
  tetrachoric (2), polychoric2 (1)

---
Versions 0.43 -- 2013-03-12
---
x included function 'isop.test' for testing the ISOP model
x included (non-iterative) eigenvector method for estimating
  the partial credit model -> 'rasch.evm.pcm'
x included argument 'ref.item' in rasch.mirtlc for specification
  of reference items
x included test of de Gooijer and Yuan (2011) that CSN is non-positive
   -> 'unidim.test.csn'   
x included option for testing differential item functioning in
  rasch.evm.pcm
x changed convergence behavior in rasch.mirtlc for 2PL models
x robust linking alternative to mean-mean linking ('linking.robust')
x corrected output for hierarchical rater model ('rm.hrm')
x included simple latent class model for two exchangeable raters 
  ('lc.2raters')
x extended unidimensional copula model to multiple dimensions ('rasch.copula3')
x changed numerical differentiation parameters in several functions
   to a smaller value
x included missing data IRT model ('rasch.mml2', irtmodel='missing1')
x included person (containing person parameters) as a value in rasch.copula2
   and rasch.copula2
x fixed a bug in testlet.yen.q3
x allowed correlated residuals in reliability calculation of 'reliability.nonlinearSEM'
x included reliability estimated for pseudo maximum likelihood estimation (rasch.pml3)
x included marginal item parameters in the output in testlet model (mcmc.3pno.testlet)

* included/modified datasets: data.reck73C1a, data.reck73C1b,
  data.reck75C2, data.reck78ExA, data.reck79ExB, 
  data.liking.science, data.si02, data.si03, data.si04, data.si05
* included/modified examples: isop.test (1), rasch.evm.pcm (1,2,3,4,5,6),
  data.reck (2,3), rasch.mirtlc (3,4,5), gom.em (2), unidim.test.csn (1,2),
  gom.em (1), linking.robust (1,2,3), lc.2raters (1), data.wide2long (2),
  rasch.copula (4), rasch.mml2 (7), reliability.nonlinearSEM (1)  

---
Versions 0.42 -- 2013-01-31
---
x included further values in smirt to allow to apply itemfit.sx2
  in the CDM package
x fixed a bug in output of person parameters in smirt (missing
  standard errors; thanks to Balal Izanloo)
x included empirical item-attribute discriminations in lsdm
x changed NAMESPACE and DESCRIPTION files due to a change in Rcpp
x fixed a bug for constraint in mu for multidimensional models
  in rasch.mml2
x fixed warning messages when reading NOHARM output files
x stabilized estimation of tetrachoric correlation coefficients
  for Tucker method (addition of cell sizes with a value .5) 
x included the method of Bonett and Price for calculation a
  tetrachoric correlation
x included additional outputs and item parameters for the 
  HRM-SDT (thanks to a discussion with Robin Gleeson)
x extended modelfit.sirt to objects of class R2noharm

* included/modified datasets: data.timss07.G8.RUS, data.reck611
* included/modified examples: fuzcluster (1), modelfit.sirt (1)

---
Versions 0.41 -- 2013-01-07
---
x included maximum likelihood estimation for discrete data in the
  belief function framework ('fuzdiscr')
x included pseudo-log-likelihood estimation for fractional item
  responses (values between 0 and 1) in 'rasch.mml2'
x included clustering fur fuzzy continuous data (belief function
  framework) ('fuzcluster')
* included datasets: data.pirlsmissing
* included examples: mcmc.2pno.ml (3), rasch.mml2 (7)

---
Versions 0.40 -- 2013-12-09
---
x fixed a bug in 'data.wide2long'
x changed Rcpp code in eigenvalue calculation due to a CRAN request
* included datasets: data.big5.qgraph 
* included examples: 

---
Versions 0.39 -- 2013-11-17
---
x included approximating function of expected percent score in
  truescore.irt
x added a check function for inits in smirt (thanks to Balal Izanloo)
x fixed a bug in output of person parameters (thanks to Balal Izanloo)
x speeded latent regression model 'latent.em.regression.raschtype'
x included latent.em.regression.normal for normally distributed
  outcomes
x included factor for convergence acceleration in 
  invariance.alignment
x included summary for latent regression models
x included function 'mle.pcm.group' for maximum likelihood estimation
  in generalized item response models which includes an option for
  estimating group parameters
x changed algorithm in 'invariance.alignment' into a two-step approach
x included plot method for function 'invariance.alignment'
* included datasets: data.inv4gr, data.ess2005, data.mcdonald.rape,
  data.si01 
* included examples: lsdm (4,5), invariance.alignment (3),
  plausible.value.imputation.raschtype (2,3)

---
Versions 0.38 -- 2013-10-23
---
x included function for automated finding of a scoring key in
  a data frame with raw item responses ('automatic.recode')
x fixed a bug in linking.haberman function 
x added argument personpars in linking.haberman for transformation
  of person parameters
x included item parameters data.activity.itempars
x included alignment method for approximate invariance
  (Asparouhov & Muthen, 2013)
x included function truescore.irt for conversion of trait scores
  into true scores for unidimensional item response models

---
Versions 0.37 -- 2013-10-02
---
x renamed 'data.noharm' into 'data.noharm18'
x fixed a bug in rasch.mirtlc with multiple starts in latent
  class models
x included datasets: 'data.noharmExC', 'data.mcdonald', 'data.reck'
x allowed input of student weights and product-moment
  matrix in R2noharm
x fixed a bug in calculation of degrees of freedom in R2noharm 
  function
x fixed a bug in linear transformation for person parameters
  in linking.haberman
x included eigenvalue decomposition function 'eigenvalues.sirt'
x included data conversion function 'data.wide2long'
  
---
Versions 0.35/0.36 -- 2013-09-08
---
x corrected legends and labels in plot.isop function
x included function rowKSmallest2.sirt
x fixed a bug in mcmc.3pno.testlet 
  (thanks to Chun-Hsien Wu)
  -> removed parametrization 3 (bifactor model) because it
     produced untrustworthy results
x included gregmisc in imports (thanks to Jean-Paul Fox)
x disabled parametrization 2 in mcmc.3pno.testlet
  -> now only the original model from the Glas paper
     (parametrization 1) is estimated
x included argument for item parameter fixings in
  pairwise conditional likelihood function 
  rasch.pairwise.itemcluster
x included ETS classification labels of uniform DIF in
  function dif.logistic.regression
x included the possiblity of not submitting any item strata 
  to stratified.cronbach.alpha and an example for using 
  the psych package
x included function 'md.pattern.sirt' for analyzing
  response patterns
x included crossprod function in several sirt functions
x included monotone nonparametric estimation in 'rasch.mml2'
  as the default in case of irtmodel='npirt' and npformula=NULL
x speeded irtmodel='npirt' in case of providing npformula
x included output of summary of testlet effects in 
  mcmc.3pno.testlet
x included the functional unidimensional model (Ip et al. 2013)
x included the linking method of Haberman (2009)
x included plot method for rasch.mml2 function
x removed rasch.testlet.glmer function

---
Version 0.34 -- 2013-08-13
---
x included estimation of ISOP and ADISOP models
x included example data.big5
x fixed a bug in pbivnorm2 for negative correlations
x included argument increment.factor in smirt to
  prevent nonconvergence (thanks to Balal Izanloo)
x included an example for DETECT for polytomous data
x included rowwise maximum and minimum and rowwise
  cumulative sum of a matrix based on Rcpp code
x included matrix functions rowIntervalIndex.sirt 
  (useful for simulations) and rowKSmallest.sirt 
  (useful for sorting matrix entries, e.g. for
  predictive mean matching in mice)
x fixed a bug in mcmc.2pno.ml (thanks to Ronny Scherer)
x included matrix row and column wise monotone regression
  function monoreg.rowwise (adapted from fdrtool package)
x included graded response model estimation in isop.poly
  function
x included plot method for ISOP models (isop.dich and
  isop.poly)

---
Version 0.33 -- 2013-07-09
---
x included R2NOHARM functions into this package for running
  NOHARM from within R
x modelfit.sirt now allows objects of class smirt
x speeded calculation of modelfit.sirt
x speeded rasch.mml2, prob.guttman, rasch.mirtlc, rm.facets, rm.hrm

---
Version 0.32 -- 2013-06-28
---
x included the estimation  of the 2PL model via MCMC (mcmc.2pno)
x included a function for estimating Rhat and MAP from MCMC output
  (mcmc.list.descriptives)
x included a function for writing coda files (mcmclist2coda)
x renamed jacknife.rasch.jml into rasch.jml.jackknife1
x included mcmc.2pnoh for estimating a hierarchical IRT model
x included mcmc.3pno.testlet for estimating IRT testlet and
  bifactor models for dichotomous data
x included mcmc.2pno.ml function for estimating a multilevel
  IRT model for dichotomous and normally distributed data

---
Version 0.31 -- 2013-05-27  [*** First CRAN Release ***]
---
x speeded rasch.pml2 a bit
x fixed a bug in smirt function (thanks to Izanloo Balal)
x included function tetrachoric2 for a quick calculation
  of the tetrachoric correlation matrix
x included pbivnorm2 for the bivariate normal integral
x included rasch.pml3, a bit faster version than rasch.pml2
x eliminated warning statements in smirt and fixed a bug in 
  estimation of a and b parameters in smirt (thanks to Izanloo Balal)

---
Version 0.30  -- 2013-04-30
---
x included a Rcpp function for faster calculations in rm.hrm
  (now there is a dependency of Rcpp and RcppArmadillo)
x included smirt function for estimating the multdimensional
  noncompensatory and compensatory models
x included variational approximation for the Rasch model
x included the (Rasch) grade of membership model

---
Version 0.29  -- 2013-04-08
---
x efficient computation of eigenvalues and inverses of
  many matrices
x included facets models with item/rater intercepts and
  slopes
x initial version of the hierarchical rater model based on
  signal detection theory (DeCarlo et al., 2011)
x included function for simulating and estimating the
  Dirichlet distribution
x included grade of membership model with joint maximum 
  likelihood estimation -> gom.jml

---
Version 0.28  -- 2013-03-24
---
x included standard errors in rasch.mml2
x included marginal true score reliability for binary item 
  response data (Dimitrov, 2003; thanks to Ulrich Schroeders)

---
Version 0.27  -- 2013-02-26
---
x included classification accuracy in the Rasch model
x implemented multidimensional latent class Rasch model
  (Bartolucci, 2007)
x cleaning of help files, included several datasets and
  examples
x included log-linear smoothing of the theta distribution
  in rasch.mirtlc
x included 2PL estimation in rasch.mirtlc
x included global fit statistics in modelfit.sirt
x included log-linear smoothing of the ability distribution
  in rasch.mml2
x accelerated rasch.pml function and renamed it into rasch.pml2
x allowed for linear constraints for residual correlations
  in rasch.pml2
x accelerated latent.regression.em.raschtype and 
  plausible value routines

---
Version 0.26  -- 2013-01-17
---
x restructured rasch.mml2 function into a bit more compact code
x do not export rasch.mml and rasch.copula anymore via namespace
x included nonparametric IRT function estimation in rasch.mml2
  -> argument irtmodel='npirt' (Rossi, Wang & Ramsay, 2002)
x included multidimensional models in rasch.mml2
x added corrected AIC (AICc) in rasch.mml2 and rasch.copula2
x corrected mean and SD estimation in rasch.mml2
x fixed a bug in the calculation of the number of estimated parameters
   in rasch.copula2
x corrected rasch.mml2 function in case of fixed weights of
  trait distribution
x corrected a bug in wle.rasch
x included probabilistic Guttman model
x analytical bias correction method for JML estimation of the Rasch model
x accelerated PMML estimation algorithm
x 2PL estimation in rasch.pml

---
Version 0.25  -- 2012-10-16
---
x fixed bad numerical behavior in rasch.copula2 for Cook-Johnson
  and Frank copula models
x improved speed in yen.q3 and extended output
x speed improvement in rasch.mml and rasch.copula2
x included version rasch.mml2 with substantial speed improvements
x speed improvements for rasch.jml function

---
Version 0.24 -- 2012-09-20
---
x changed algorithms behavior of rasch.copula2 
  (parameter increments depend on number of iterations)
x corrected deviance calculation in rasch.copula

---
Version 0.23  -- 2012-08-31
---
x removed functions for running ConQuest from this package
x included Cook-Johnson and Frank copula in rasch.copula2 function
x included examples for wle.rasch.jackknife
x removed a minor printing bug in rasch.copula
x fixed a bug in jackknife.rasch.jml
x included item parameter constraints in jackknife.rasch.jml
x corrected handling of extreme responses in rasch.prox

---
Version 0.22 -- 2012-07-17
---
x included estimation of residual error correlations in rasch.pml
x restructured rasch.testlet.glmer function
x included data set reading data.read
x set a different default in rasch.mml (estimation of trait SD seemed incorrect)
x rasch.testlet.glmer: output EAPs and EAP reliability
x included loglog and cloglog link functions in rasch.testlet.glmer
x included jackknife estimation of the joint maximum likelihood
  Rasch model
x included a speeded version of rasch.copula and labelled it 
  as rasch.copula2 -> The old version rasch.copula remains in the
  package.
x output posterior distribition, EAP estimates and
  EAP reliability in rasch.copula    
x introduced probit and logit version of rasch.pml: pairwise marginal 
  likelihood estimation
x removed some bugs (or inefficiencies) in numerical differentiation 
  in rasch.mml and rasch.copula
x renamed sim.rasch.copula into sim.rasch.dep
x included function rasch.pairwise.itemcluster for the conditional 
  pairwise estimation method for locally dependent items   
x package structure of sirtr is created
x included simulation function for Rasch copula model 
   (sim.rasch.copula)


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# older sirt versions (formerly sirtr up to 0.21)

Version 0.21 -- 2012-06-23
Version 0.20 -- 2012-06-18
Version 0.19 -- 2012-04-26
Version 0.18 -- 2012-03-29
Version 0.17 -- 2012-02-22
Version 0.16 -- 2012-02-17
Version 0.15 -- 2011-12-19
Version 0.14 -- 2011-10-06
Version 0.13 -- 2010-08-26
Version 0.12 -- 2010-01-13
Version 0.11 -- 2010-01-12
Version 0.10 -- 2010-01-02
Version 0.9  -- 2009-11-01
Version 0.8  -- 2009-03-08
Version 0.7  -- 2009-03-02
Version 0.6  -- 2009-12-02
Version 0.5  -- 2008-11-12
Version 0.4  -- 2008-08-25
Version 0.3  -- 2008-05-06
Version 0.2  -- 2008-01-29
Version 0.1  -- 2007-12-22
Version 0.0  -- 2007-12-18