Caution for Software Use of New Statistical Methods (R)

Abstract

Open source programming languages such as R allow statisticians to develop and rapidly disseminate advanced procedures, but sometimes at the expense of a proper vetting process. A new example is the least trimmed squares regression available in R’s lqs() in the MASS library. It produces pretty regression lines, particularly in the presence of outliers. However, this procedure lacks a defined standard error, and thus it should be avoided.