Related papers: Four principles for improved statistical ecology

How should researchers analyze randomized experiments in which the main outcome is latent and measured in multiple ways but each measure contains some degree of error? We first identify a critical study-specific noncomparability problem in…

We study the problem of deriving policies, or rules, that when enacted on a complex system, cause a desired outcome. Absent the ability to perform controlled experiments, such rules have to be inferred from past observations of the system's…

We propose a research strategy for creating and deploying prescriptive recommendations for spreadsheet practice. Empirical data on usage can be used to create a taxonomy of spreadsheet classes. Within each class, existing practices and…

Highly Principled Data Science insists on methodologies that are: (1) scientifically justified, (2) statistically principled, and (3) computationally efficient. An astrostatistics collaboration, together with some reminiscences, illustrates…

Human behavioral patterns and consumption paradigms have emerged as pivotal determinants in environmental degradation and climate change, with quotidian decisions pertaining to transportation, energy utilization, and resource consumption…

We should be in a golden age of scientific discovery, given that we have more data and more compute power available than ever before, plus a new generation of algorithms that can learn effectively from data. But paradoxically, in many…

Poor research design and data analysis encourage false-positive findings. Such poor methods persist despite perennial calls for improvement, suggesting that they result from something more than just misunderstanding. The persistence of poor…

The increasing recognition of the association between adverse human health conditions and many environmental substances as well as processes has led to the need to monitor them. An important problem that arises in environmental statistics…

Empirical science needs to be based on facts and claims that can be reproduced. This calls for replicating the studies that proclaim the claims, but practice in most fields still fails to implement this idea. When such studies emerged in…

Reproducibility is a fundamental requirement of the scientific process since it enables outcomes to be replicated and verified. Computational scientific experiments can benefit from improved reproducibility for many reasons, including…

Statistical science (as opposed to mathematical statistics) involves far more than probability theory, for it requires realistic causal models of data generators - even for purely descriptive goals. Statistical decision theory requires more…

Statistically sound pattern discovery harnesses the rigour of statistical hypothesis testing to overcome many of the issues that have hampered standard data mining approaches to pattern discovery. Most importantly, application of…

Indirect evidence is crucial for successful statistical practice. Sometimes, however, it is better used informally. Future efforts should be directed toward understanding better the connection between statistical methods and scientific…

Causal and attribution studies are essential for earth scientific discoveries and critical for informing climate, ecology, and water policies. However, the current generation of methods needs to keep pace with the complexity of scientific…

Organisms and ecological groups accumulate evidence to make decisions. Classic experiments and theoretical studies have explored this process when the correct choice is fixed during each trial. However, we live in a constantly changing…

Citations are the cornerstone of knowledge propagation and the primary means of assessing the quality of research, as well as directing investments in science. Science is increasingly becoming "data-intensive", where large volumes of data…

Many data science students and practitioners don't see the value in making time to learn and adopt good coding practices as long as the code "works". However, code standards are an important part of modern data science practice, and they…

For obtaining causal inferences that are objective, and therefore have the best chance of revealing scientific truths, carefully designed and executed randomized experiments are generally considered to be the gold standard. Observational…

Due to their high predictive performance and flexibility, machine learning models are an appropriate and efficient tool for ecologists. However, implementing a machine learning model is not yet a trivial task and may seem intimidating to…

Context: Empirical Software Engineering (ESE) drives innovation in SE through qualitative and quantitative studies. However, concerns about the correct application of empirical methodologies have existed since the 2006 Dagstuhl seminar on…