Examples
Worked examples
- Is an instance
A diagram in a methods paper showing 32 plausible analytic pipelines branching from one dataset.
- Is an instance
An author's reflection on how many choices were latently available before any analysis ran.
Counter-examples
Looks similar, but isn't
- Not an instance
A pre-registered single-path analysis.
- Not an instance
A formal multiple-comparison correction (addresses but does not name the garden).
Editorial commentary
The 'garden of forking paths' is the conceptual umbrella under which forking-paths analyses and the multiverse-analysis literature operate. The metaphor borrows from Borges. Its practical import is that conventional inferential statistics, which assume a fixed analytical pipeline, are mis-calibrated when applied to data-contingent analyses.
References
- Gelman, Loken, 'The garden of forking paths' (Columbia University working paper, 2013/2014).
Also known as
Gelman-Loken garden of forking paths
Machine-readable encodings
Use in your systems
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