creating dynamic Arrays Javascript

Create a new array and push the selected values to the new array.

A detailed description of array functions

Manipulating JavaScript Arrays

var ratingArray = new Array(total,creativity,design,text,motivation,depth,usefulness,research);

var selectedValArray = [];

for(i=0; i < ratingArray.length;i++)
{

        for(a=0; a < ratingArray[i].length;a++)
        {
                if(ratingArray[i][a].checked == true)
                {

                         selectedValArray.push ( ratingArray[i][a].value );
                }        
        }

}

The statement

document.getElementsByName('qm[7]')

will not work. There are no elements that can have the name qm[7]. Did you mean this to be your array? In that case, remove the quotes, initialize the array prior to those statements and fill it with the names of the elements you want to select.

The function getElementsByName returns an array of elements. To use this array, you need to select the items in it. I.e.:

var elems = document.getElementsByName("body");
var myBody = elems[0];

you do that correctly in your for-loops.

Update: expanded section and added explanation on getElementsByTagName

In this line you create an new Array every time:

rateArray = new Array(ratingArray[i][a].value);

So you have to push the elements in to the array instead of creating a new one every time thats also delete the last version.

 var rateArray =[]

for(i=0; i < ratingArray.length;i++)
{

        for(a=0; a < ratingArray[i].length;a++)
        {
                if(ratingArray[i][a].checked)
                {

                         rateArray.push(ratingArray[i][a].value);
                }        
        }

}