In multidimensional scaling models, the parameter estimates are not uniquely determined; the estimates can be transformed in various ways without changing their badness of fit. The initial and final estimates from PROC MDS are, therefore, normalized (unless you specify the NONORM option) to make it easier to compare results from different analyses.

The configuration always has a mean of 0 for each dimension.

With the COEF=IDENTITY option, the configuration is rotated to a principal-axis orientation. Unless you specify the LEVEL=ABSOLUTE option, the entire configuration is scaled so that the root-mean-square element is 1, and the transformations are adjusted to compensate.

With the COEF=DIAGONAL option, each dimension is scaled to a root-mean-square value of 1, and the dimension coefficients are adjusted to compensate. Unless you specify the LEVEL=ABSOLUTE option, the dimension coefficients are normalized as follows. If you specify the CONDITION=UN option, all of the dimension coefficients are scaled to a root-mean-square value of 1. For other values of the CONDITION= option, the dimension coefficients are scaled separately for each subject to a root-mean-square value of 1. In either case, the transformations are adjusted to compensate.

Each dimension is reflected to give a positive rank correlation with the order of the objects in the data set.

For the LEVEL=ORDINAL option, if the intercept, slope, or power parameters are fitted, the transformed data are normalized to eliminate these parameters if possible.