new Chapter 8

announcements (new versions, changes, bugs, installation problems...) related to program MARK

new Chapter 8

Postby cooch » Tue Mar 30, 2004 2:30 pm

Greetings -

I just posted a new version of chapter 8 - which is the chapter related to 'age' and cohort models. You'll want to download this revised chapter (either alone, or as part of the single indexed file), for several reasons: the most important of which is the introduction of a new nomenclature for 'age' models. As per some recent discussions amongst folks who work with these models, there is some confusion when referring to them as 'age' models, since (as many of you know) we use the same ultra-structral models fro many situations where we're not interested in true age effects, but rather, in effects of the time since marking. Thus, we now consider referring to these models as TSM models (for 'time since marking'), of which true 'age' models are a particular application.

The purpose is not to make life more confusing (although undoubtedly it will take some getting used to), but to help all of us deal with editors and reviewers who seem to get confused over what we really mean when we fit an 'age' model. The TSM notation is being considered as a viable solution to this problem, which many of us have faced during the review process. I actually had a paper trashed by a reviewer who claimed (and I quote)

The author clearly doesn't know what he is doing - since he insists on applying age models even though his entire sample was banded as adults


Now, I'm the last to dispute ever knowing what I'm doing (those who can't do...write manuals on how to do it), but I did (surprisingly) know what I was doing when applying an 'age' model - I wasn't interested in age, but the use of the 'age' structure. It was the use of the word 'age' that confused said reviewer (even though I put the appropriate PIMs in the paper to illustrate - which probably only served to confuse said reviewer even more, I suspect). :wink:

So, have a look. Also, the new version of the chapter introduces another 'sample data' set, which is now included in the markdata.zip archive you can download as a separate file.

All of the above can be found at

http://www.phidot.org/software/mark/docs/book/[/quote][/list]
cooch
 
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