Statistics used by ecologists: the rise of R statistical software, GLM(M)s and Networks

2025 · doi:10.64898/2025.12.04.692382
preprint OA: closed
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⚙ AI-generated summary by claude@2026-07, 2026-07-15 ⓘ

This study analyzed 142 plant-ant interaction papers from 1979-2023 and found a significant increase in statistical procedures, with R software, GLMs, GLMMs, and network analyses becoming dominant.

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⚙ AI-generated deep summary by claude@2026-07, 2026-07-15 · read from full text ⓘ

The paper analyzes how statistical methods and software use have changed over time in ecological studies of plant–ant interactions, examining 142 published papers from 1979 to 2023. It reports that the number of statistical procedures per paper averaged eight and increased significantly over the years, with R software cited in nearly 80% of studies, outpacing other software. The authors find that traditional methods (t-tests, correlations, chi-squares) remain common, but from 2012 onward analyses such as GLM, GLMM, and network approaches increased and became leading, coinciding with broader R adoption; they also list the most frequently used R packages (e.g., vegan, lme4, bipartite). The paper’s caveat is that it focuses specifically on plant–ant interaction studies, so the trends may not generalize beyond this ecology subfield. The paper does not explicitly discuss endometriosis or adenomyosis; it was included in the corpus via a keyword match in the upstream search index.

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Abstract

About 15 years ago, statistical softwares were rarely employed to conduct statistical analyses, and biologists/ecologists used roughly 100 statistical procedures in research. This number has likely increased substantially with the development of new analytical methods and the widespread adoption of computers and softwares. In this study, I investigated the temporal variation in statistical procedures and the use of softwares used in studies on plant–ant interactions. Data were collected from 142 published papers covering a period between 1979 to 2023. Information related to statistics terminology, the softwares cited and R software packages were retrieved. Each paper had on average eight statistical procedures and there was a significant increase in procedures over the years. The R software was cited in almost 80% of studies, surpassing by far the other softwares. Classical analyses such as t -tests, correlations and chi-squares are still used in research; nonetheless, from 2012 onward a new set of analyses including GLM, GLMM and Networks have emerged and are being used as the leading analyses in studies of plant-ant interactions. This coincides with the adoption of R software by scientists in this field. The most used R packages were vegan, lme4 and bipartite , followed by several other related to linear (mixed) models. Statistics literacy is a mandatory aspect of research in plant-ant interactions. The increase in statistical procedures over the years, as well as the emergence of new tests can be considered as a natural evolution of the field with demand for robustness in methods and analyses.
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Abstract About 15 years ago, statistical softwares were rarely employed to conduct statistical analyses, and biologists/ecologists used roughly 100 statistical procedures in research. This number has likely increased substantially with the development of new analytical methods and the widespread adoption of computers and softwares. In this study, I investigated the temporal variation in statistical procedures and the use of softwares used in studies on plant–ant interactions. Data were collected from 142 published papers covering a period between 1979 to 2023. Information related to statistics terminology, the softwares cited and R software packages were retrieved. Each paper had on average eight statistical procedures and there was a significant increase in procedures over the years. The R software was cited in almost 80% of studies, surpassing by far the other softwares. Classical analyses such as t-tests, correlations and chi-squares are still used in research; nonetheless, from 2012 onward a new set of analyses including GLM, GLMM and Networks have emerged and are being used as the leading analyses in studies of plant-ant interactions. This coincides with the adoption of R software by scientists in this field. The most used R packages were vegan, lme4 and bipartite, followed by several other related to linear (mixed) models. Statistics literacy is a mandatory aspect of research in plant-ant interactions. The increase in statistical procedures over the years, as well as the emergence of new tests can be considered as a natural evolution of the field with demand for robustness in methods and analyses. Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest.

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