Tutorials
Menu Tabs
How Tos
- Create an account
- Login to the 4C Database
- Obtain my password or login-name
- Edit my profile
- Contribute a new case study
- View Detail of a case study
- Edit a study
- Add a case study from case study archive to my personal library
- Update my tags for a case study in my personal library
- Full-text Boolean search
- View all tags and navigate through them
- View my tags and navigate through them
- How to use the 4C Discussion Forum
What is
- Your Profile
Allows 4C members to edit their profile and/or reset their password. Click here to see "howtos".
- About
Provides the general information about the 4C database. This includes:
- Case Archive (top)
Shows a list of all case studies submitted by 4C members. This list view includes the title of the study, focus of the study, study contributor, his/her tags for the case study, and a list of all tags used in the system. Case studies are sorted chronologically based on submission date. By clicking on the matrix visualization icon (to learn about icons used in 4C click here) you can view all these case studies in a matrix. The 4C case archive page displays case studies as they are saved by 4C members. The following figure is a snapshot of the 4C case archive page. It explains the available information and what can be done with it.
- Personal Library
Shows a list of all case studies stored in your personal library of case studies. This page also gives you the option to only view the case studies that are contributed by you rather than all the cases in your personal library. The list view includes the title of the study, focus of the study, study contributor (if it is not you), his/her (or your) tags for the case study, your tags for the study, and a list of all the tags used by you. Case studies are sorted chronologically based on submission date. By clicking on the matrix visualization icon (to learn about icons used in 4C click here) you can view all of your case studies in a matrix. The following figure is a snapshot of a personal library page . It explains the available information and what can be done with it.
- Contribute a Study
You can contribute a new case study to the 4C database through this page. To read more about contributing case studies to the 4C Database go here .
- Refined Search and Select
4C facilitates search and select on the case study archive by providing the following functionality to its members:
- Full-text search:
The 4C search engine allows you to perform search on the whole content of the cases in the 4C case study archive. You can then compare and contrast case studies resulting from the search. To read more about full-text search engine go here. To explore go here.
- Search on all tags:
4C allows you to browse through all tags in the system and view case studies that are tagged by them. You demonstrates such scenario. To explore go here .
- Search on my tags:
The 4C Database allows you to browse through your tags in the system and view case studies that are tagged with them. You can narrow down the collection of case studies by selecting an intersection of related tags. This figure demonstrates such scenario.
The 4C Database also allows its members to select as many case studies from the case study archive and compare them based on the 4C member's selected case categories. To explore go here.
- Full-text search:
- Discuss:
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Discuss permits 4C members to engage in multi-way dialogue with other 4C members. The 4C database facilitates collaboration amongst case study researchers from different disciplines and allows them to create communities of interest through the discuss feature.
- Publish to Journal: This 4C feature is currently under construction.
The 4C database has the capacity to create publishable volumes by identifying journal content of interest from: archived dialogue, annotations of cases by 4C members, recommended cases and popularity of tags. We anticipate that online journals would include 4C member case studies and their cross-case analyses on topics of interest.
Menu Tabs
- Create an account
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Any case study researcher can register to create an account with the 4C Database. To register, you need to provide the 4C administrator a unique login_name (at least 3 characters), a unique valid email address, and a password (at least 5 characters). You can also provide some information about yourself which will help us to create a profile for each 4C member. To register for an account go here
- Login To 4C
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In order to login to the 4C Database you need to first have an account (here). To login to the 4C Database you need to provide the system with your login_name and password. If you already have an account go here to login to 4C.
- Obtain my password or login name
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If you have already had an account but don't remember either your login_name or password you can send a request to the 4C administrator. An email containing the instruction on how to access your account will be sent to you. To send a request for account information go here
- Edit my profile (top)
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You must be logged-in in order to edit your profile. To Edit your profile or reset your password go here .
- Contribute a new study (top)
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In order to contribute a new case study to the 4C database you must be logged-in. The following figure shows the case study contribution page. To contribute a case study you have to assign a title to it. Filling the rest of case categories are optional but we encourage you to submit all this information when contributing a case study. To learn more about case categories go here . In order to assign tags to your case study you can either enter it in the "tags" field or click on a tag from "my tags" list. Tags may contain multiple terms separated by space (e.g. greater vancouver, economy, 1989). To contribute a new study go here
- View detail of a case study (top)
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To view Detail of a case study click on either on the study title or the Detail tab beside the case study title. This will show you the content of the case categories as well as a list of actions that you can perform based on your privileges for the case study.
- If you don't have the case study in your library the only action allowed is "adding the case study" to your library.
- If you already have the case study in your library the actions allowed are: update tags, add a note, and remove from library.
- If you are the contributor of the case study the actions allowed are: edit the case study categories, add a note, add a file, and update tags.
- Edit a case study
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If you are the contributor of a case study a Edit tab will be displayed beside the case study title. By clicking on the Edit tab you can edit the case study categories, add a note, add a file, or update tags.
- Add a case study from case study archive to my personal library (top)
- To add a case study from case study archive into your personal library simply click on "Add to library". This will take you to a page where you can assign your own tags to the case study.
- Update my tags for a case study in my personal library (top)
- In order to be able to update tags on a case study you first need to have the case study in your personal library. To see how to add a case study into your personal library go here. If you have a case study in your personal library simply click on the "case study title" or "Detail tab". There you can choose the "update tags" action.
- Full-text Boolean Search
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4C supports a rich search syntax: EXAMPLE
- AND (contains both case and study)
- case + study
- case study
- +case +study
- case AND study
- +(case study)
- OR (contains either case or study)
- case ~ study
- case OR study
- NOT (contains case but not study)
- case - study
- case NOT study
- Phrases
- "case study"
- Wildcards
- ca*e
The following figure is a snapshot of the 4C full-text search page. It explains the available functionality.
- AND (contains both case and study)
- View all tags and navigate through them
To view all tags used by 4C members you can either click on "All Tags" tab in the case study archive page or select "search through all tags" under Refined Search and Select in the menu bar. The following figure explains how you can discover case studies through your tags.
- View my tags and navigate through them
- To view all your tags you can either click on "My Tags" tab in your personal library or select "search through my tags" under Refined Search and Select in the menu bar. The following figure explains how you can discover case studies through your tags.
- How to use the 4C Discussion Forum
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To start a discussion topic on the 4C forum you should first select the "Discuss" tab in the menu bar.
After opning the discussion forum you can start a new topic by selecting "New Topic" tab
To view the topics that you have started you should select "My Topics" tab
To view detail of a topic along with all rellies posted you must click on the "topic title" link.
To post a "Reply" first select a topic then click on "Post a Reply" button; or "Reply" link.
To view all topics started by a member click on the "member name" link.
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How Tos
- What is Matrix Visualization
- 4C database offers a visual display to view the studies in a matrix
where each study text is structured/indexed into separate fields. All the studies
can be seen stacked on top of one another and all of the fields are visible on one
standard display. This visual display may facilitate comparisons and contrasts between
the studies. By selecting the matrix visualization icon
at any page
you can view cases in that page in a form of a matrix.