ReviewEcology2021
A practical guide to selecting models for exploration, inference, and prediction in ecology.
Review in Ecology, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 102 papers.
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.
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.
Who cites it
102 citing papers in PubMed.
- Trial
- Increased maximum carbon release offsets half of the growth trend in annual land carbon sink.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Habitat Selection and Intrapopulation Spatial Segregation in an Arctic Top Predator at the Southern Limit of Its Range.Global change biology · 2026Article
- Persistence Vulnerability of the African Savanna ElephantEcology and evolution · 2026Article
- Food Availability and Environmental Factors Are Associated With Seasonal Variation in Diet Composition and Activity Budgets of Stump-Tailed Macaques (Macaca arctoides) in Hollongapar Gibbon Sanctuary, Assam, India.American journal of primatology · 2026Article
- Interpretable and Predictive Models Based on High-Dimensional Data in Ecology and Evolution.Molecular ecology resources · 2026Article
- Differential responses to photoperiod in juveniles of two migratory songbird species.The Journal of experimental biology · 2026Article
- Repeatedly unreliable, and unreliably repeatable: the trials-to-criterion fallacy.Animal cognition · 2026Article
- Impacts of large herbivores on savanna plant communities: Predictive models of herbivore selectivity and plant response.Ecology · 2026Article
- Limited capacity of habitat features to buffer grassland bird declines.Ecological applications : a publication of the Ecological Society of America · 2026Article
- Rising tree mortality in France is associated with distinct seasonal climate anomalies.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Biodiversity and habitat complexity buffer the destabilizing effects of anthropogenic activities on riverine fish communities.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Exploring Public Knowledge of Dog Law in the UK: Evidence of Poor Legal Knowledge in a Nationally Representative Sample.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2026Article
- Utilisation of mental health services before, during, and after COVID-19 restrictions: interrupted time-series analysis in England.BMC health services research · 2026Article
- Why Size Does Not Matter: Sex Driven Home Range Differences in Brown Bears.Ecology and evolution · 2026Article
- Best practices for moving from correlation to causation in ecological research.Nature communications · 2026Review
- Thermoregulatory strategies in the heat varies among Australian insectivorous bats.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Contrasting patterns in kelp consumption across latitude by two barren forming sea urchin species.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- A practical guide to characterising ecological coexistence.Biological reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society · 2026Review
- Migratory connectivity and barrier-crossing flights of Vermivora warblers are associated with synoptic weather conditions.The Journal of animal ecology · 2026Article
42 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Selecting among competing statistical models is a core challenge in science. However, the many possible approaches and techniques for model selection, and the conflicting recommendations for their use, can be confusing. We contend that much confusion surrounding statistical model selection results from failing to first clearly specify the purpose of the analysis. We argue that there are three distinct goals for statistical modeling in ecology: data exploration, inference, and prediction. Once the modeling goal is clearly articulated, an appropriate model selection procedure is easier to identify. We review model selection approaches and highlight their strengths and weaknesses relative to each of the three modeling goals. We then present examples of modeling for exploration, inference, and prediction using a time series of butterfly population counts. These show how a model selection approach flows naturally from the modeling goal, leading to different models selected for different purposes, even with exactly the same data set. This review illustrates best practices for ecologists and should serve as a reminder that statistical recipes cannot substitute for critical thinking or for the use of independent data to test hypotheses and validate predictions.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
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.