Evidence map›Paper›PMID 32664864›Full record

ArticleBMC bioinformatics2020

Conditional permutation importance revisited.

Dries Debeer, Carolin Strobl

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in BMC bioinformatics, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 34 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
34citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

34 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Tutorial: Using Random Forest Analysis to Identify Auxiliary Variables of Missing Data.Prevention science : the official journal of the Society for Prevention Research · 2026
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  17. Predicting pediatric severe asthma exacerbations: an administrative claims-based predictive model.The Journal of asthma : official journal of the Association for the Care of Asthma · 2024
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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

2 authors.

Dries DebeerUniversity of Zurich, Psychological Methods, Evaluation and Statistics, Binzmuehlestrasse 14, Box 27, Zurich, 8050, Switzerland. dries.debeer@kuleuven.be.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5875-357X
Carolin StroblUniversity of Zurich, Psychological Methods, Evaluation and Statistics, Binzmuehlestrasse 14, Box 27, Zurich, 8050, Switzerland.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundRandom forest based variable importance measures have become popular tools for assessing the contributions of the predictor variables in a fitted random forest. In this article we reconsider a frequently used variable importance measure, the Conditional Permutation Importance (CPI). We argue and illustrate that the CPI corresponds to a more partial quantification of variable importance and suggest several improvements in its methodology and implementation that enhance its practical value. In addition, we introduce the threshold value in the CPI algorithm as a parameter that can make the CPI more partial or more marginal.

resultsBy means of extensive simulations, where the original version of the CPI is used as the reference, we examine the impact of the proposed methodological improvements. The simulation results show how the improved CPI methodology increases the interpretability and stability of the computations. In addition, the newly proposed implementation decreases the computation times drastically and is more widely applicable. The improved CPI algorithm is made freely available as an add-on package to the open-source software R.

conclusionThe proposed methodology and implementation of the CPI is computationally faster and leads to more stable results. It has a beneficial impact on practical research by making random forest analyses more interpretable.

Indexed as

AlgorithmsComputer SimulationSoftwareConditional permutation importanceRRandom forest

Identifiers

PMID32664864
PMCPMC7362659

What OpenQuestion holds

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Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.