ABSTRACT
Exploratory factor analysis can be used to check whether a set of items form one or more sub-scales or factors. There are many decisions which the analyst is required to take, such as the type of factor analysis, the number of factors to extract, whether to rotate the solution and if so which type of rotation, which items are linked to which factor and what the factors should be called. All these decisions should be reported explicitly and not hidden as though they were unproblematic and completely objective.
