Issue 7.5 is now online!

The May issue of Methods is now online!

This month’s issue contains two Applications articles and two Open Access articles, all of which are freely available.

– piecewiseSEM: A practical implementation of confirmatory path analysis for the R programming language. This package extends the method to all current (generalized) linear, (phylogenetic) least-square, and mixed effects models, relying on familiar R syntax. The article also includes two worked examples.

– RPANDA: An R package that implements model-free and model-based phylogenetic comparative methods for macroevolutionary analyses. It can be used to:

1. Characterize phylogenetic trees by plotting their spectral density profiles
2. Compare trees and cluster them according to their similarities
3. Identify and plot distinct branching patterns within trees
4. Compare the fit of alternative diversification models to phylogenetic trees
5. Estimate rates of speciation and extinction
6. Estimate and plot how these rates have varied with time and environmental variables
7. Deduce and plot estimates of species richness through geological time. Continue reading “Issue 7.5”