Nursing Theories Epistemic Space Data Visualization

An interactive visualization of the three-dimensional "epistemic space" of nursing theories based on Beckstead & Beckstead's (2006) multidimensional scaling analysis. This project creates a dashboard that positions 20 influential nurse theorists according to their citations of scholars from psychology, biology, and philosophy.

Overview

This project visualizes the findings from the paper "A multidimensional analysis of the epistemic origins of nursing theories, models, and frameworks" by Beckstead & Beckstead (2006). Using multidimensional scaling (MDS) analysis, the authors positioned 20 nurse theorists in a three-dimensional epistemic space based on their citation patterns.

The three dimensions represent:

• Psychology (D1): Influence from psychology, particularly personality theory
• Biology (D2): Influence from biology and general systems theory
• Philosophy (D3): Influence from philosophy, particularly existential philosophy

Data Source

The data comes from Beckstead & Beckstead's 2006 paper published in the International Journal of Nursing Studies: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijnurstu.2004.09.021

The dataset (beckstead_data_with_groups.csv) contains the MDS coordinates for each nurse theorist along the three dimensions, along with their names and abbreviations.

Features

• Interactive 2D visualizations of each dimension pair
• Interactive 3D visualization showing all dimensions simultaneously
• Data table with detailed information about each theorist
• Summary of key findings from the original research
• Responsive design that works in any modern web browser

Installation and Setup

Prerequisites

• R (version 4.0.0 or later)
• Required R packages (installation commands provided below)

Steps

1. Clone this repository:

   git clone https://gitlab.com/untracked7957/nursing-epistemic-space/.git
   cd nursing-epistemic-space
   

2. Install the required R packages:

   install.packages(c("tidyverse", "rmarkdown", "flexdashboard", "plotly", 
                      "DT", "htmltools", "kableExtra", "ggrepel"))

3. Open the RStudio project (nursing-theories-epistemic-space.Rproj), or navigate to the project directory in R.

Usage

Generating the Dashboard

1. Open the beckstead-dashboard.Rmd file in RStudio
2. Click the "Knit" button or run:

   rmarkdown::render("beckstead-dashboard.Rmd")

3. The HTML dashboard will be generated and automatically opened in your browser

Exploring the Visualization

The dashboard contains several tabs:

• Overview: General information about the project and data source
• 2D Visualization: Interactive 2D plots with tabs for different dimension combinations
• 3D Visualization: Interactive 3D plot showing all dimensions simultaneously
• Data Explorer: Searchable data table with all theorist information
• Key Findings: Summary of the major patterns discovered in the analysis

The interactive visualizations support:

• Zooming in/out with the mouse wheel
• Panning by clicking and dragging
• Tooltips with detailed information when hovering over points
• Rotation of the 3D visualization

Project Structure

nursing-theories-epistemic-space/
├── beckstead_html_only.Rmd     # Main R Markdown file for the dashboard
├── beckstead_html_only.html    # Main HTML file for the dashboard
├── data/
│   └── beckstead_data_with_groups.csv  # Dataset with theorist coordinates and groupings
├── images/                     # Images for documentation and dashboard
├── styles.css                  # Custom CSS styles for the dashboard
├── README.md                   # This file
└── LICENSE.md                  # License information

Dependencies

This project relies on the following R packages:

• tidyverse: For data manipulation and visualization
• rmarkdown: For document generation
• flexdashboard: For dashboard layout and structure
• plotly: For interactive visualizations
• DT: For interactive data tables
• htmltools: For HTML generation
• kableExtra: For enhanced tables
• ggrepel: For non-overlapping text labels

Contributing

Contributions to improve the visualization are welcome. Please feel free to:

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch (git checkout -b feature/YourFeature)
3. Commit your changes (git commit -m 'Add some feature')
4. Push to the branch (git push origin feature/YourFeature)
5. Open a Pull Request

License

This project is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License - see the LICENSE.md file for details.

Acknowledgments

• Beckstead & Beckstead (2006) for the original research and data
• Vincent Martin-Schreiber for the data visualization implementation
• Anthropic's Claude 3.7 Sonnet for development assistance

Citation

If you use this visualization in your own work, please cite:

Martin-Schreiber, V. (2025). Nursing Theories Epistemic Space Data Visualization. [URL]

Beckstead, J. W., & Beckstead, L. G. (2006). A multidimensional analysis of the epistemic origins 
of nursing theories, models, and frameworks. International Journal of Nursing Studies, 43(1), 113-122. 
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijnurstu.2004.09.021

Contact

For questions or collaboration, please contact Vincent Martin-Schreiber through his ORCID profile.