Shifterator

Shifterator is a Python package for visualizing pairwise comparisons between texts through word shifts, a general method for extracting which words contribute to a difference between two texts and, importantly, how they do so. These contributions are visualized through word shift graphs, detailed and interpretable horizontal bar charts that display the interacting components of word shifts. Shifterator can be used for direct text comparisons, sentiment analysis, or as a scientifically sound alternative to a word cloud.

Example of a word shift graph

Features

Shifterator:

  • Provides interpretable tools for working with text as data and mapping the complexities of how two texts are similar or different.
  • Implements common text comparison measurse, including relative frequency, Shannon entropy, Tsallis entropy, the Kullback-Leibler divergence, and the Jensen-Shannon divergence.
  • Unpacks weighted averages calculated from any dictionary-based sentiment analysis method.
  • Diagnoses data artificats and measurement errors early in the research process.
  • Produces publication-ready visualizations of word shift graphs that provide a detailed summaries of text comparison measures.
  • Removes the need to ever make a word cloud for a scientific publication.

Computational social scientists, digital humanists, and other text analysis practitioners can all use Shifterator to construct reliable, robust, and interpretable stories from text data.

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