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D-separation for applied researchers: understanding how to interpret directed acyclic graphs

Methodology 2025-02-20 v1

Abstract

The assumed causal relationships depicted in a DAG are interpreted using a set of rules called D-separation rules. Although these rules can be implemented automatically using standard software, at least a basic understanding of their principles is useful for properly using and interpreting DAGs in practice.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2502.13736,
  title  = {D-separation for applied researchers: understanding how to interpret directed acyclic graphs},
  author = {Fernando Pires Hartwig and Timothy Feeney and Neil Davies},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2502.13736},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

15 pages, 2 figures 2 boxes