<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="overflow-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;"><span style="font-size: 14px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Dear Lucie,</span><div><span style="font-size: 14px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><br></span></div><div><span style="font-size: 14px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">I thank you very much for this material and for your presentation, which was definitively useful in many respects. I understood things I did not understand before.</span></div><div><span style="font-size: 14px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><br></span></div><div><span style="font-size: 14px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">A couple of hours after your presentation, i have attended the weekly meeting with richard McElreath and asked him specifically about whether it is appropriate to use AIC criteria when running SEM and he reiterated that it is not (his words: “it is wrongâ€). <br id="lineBreakAtBeginningOfMessage"></span><div><span style="font-size: 14px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><br></span></div><div><span style="font-size: 14px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">even if less categorically <span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); letter-spacing: 0.2px; orphans: 3; widows: 3;">Jon Lefcheck says the same thing:</span></span></div><div><em style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); letter-spacing: 0.2px; orphans: 3; widows: 3; font-size: 14px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><br></em></div><div><span style="font-size: 14px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><em style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); letter-spacing: 0.2px; orphans: 3; widows: 3;">“</em><span style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); letter-spacing: 0.2px; orphans: 3; widows: 3;">Users should take caution when exploring these techniques as to avoid dredging the model. SEM is a technique that relies heavily on informed model specification. Adding paths in that are suggested by the data but not anticipated by the user only in an effort to achieve adequate fit might be appropriate in other applications, but ignore the basic philosophy behind SEM that relationships are based on </span><em style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); letter-spacing: 0.2px; orphans: 3; widows: 3;">a priori </em><span style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); letter-spacing: 0.2px; orphans: 3; widows: 3;">knowledge and intuition</span><em style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); letter-spacing: 0.2px; orphans: 3; widows: 3;">†</em><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); letter-spacing: 0.2px; orphans: 3; widows: 3;">[italics is </span></span><span style="orphans: 3; widows: 3; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: 0.2px;">Lefcheck’s</span></span><span style="font-size: 14px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); letter-spacing: 0.2px; orphans: 3; widows: 3;">]</span><em style="font-size: 14px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); letter-spacing: 0.2px; orphans: 3; widows: 3;">.</em></div><div><span style="font-size: 14px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><em style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); letter-spacing: 0.2px; orphans: 3; widows: 3;"><br></em></span></div><div><span style="font-size: 14px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); letter-spacing: 0.2px; orphans: 3; widows: 3;">Thanks again and a good week-end to all,</span></span></div><div><span style="font-size: 14px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); letter-spacing: 0.2px; orphans: 3; widows: 3;"><br></span></span></div><div><span style="font-size: 14px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); letter-spacing: 0.2px; orphans: 3; widows: 3;">Antonella</span></span></div><div><span style="font-size: 14px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><em style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); letter-spacing: 0.2px; orphans: 3; widows: 3;"><br></em></span></div><div><span style="font-size: 14px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><em style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); letter-spacing: 0.2px; orphans: 3; widows: 3;"><br></em></span></div><div><em style="font-size: 16px; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.2px; orphans: 3; widows: 3;"><br></em></div><div><em style="font-size: 16px; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.2px; orphans: 3; widows: 3;"><br></em></div><div><br></div><div><br><blockquote type="cite"><div>On 2. Feb 2024, at 14:19, Lucie M. Baltz <lucie.baltz@zoologie.uni-halle.de> wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><div><meta charset="UTF-8"><div class="WordSection1" style="page: WordSection1; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none;"><div style="margin: 0cm; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">Hey everyone,</div><div style="margin: 0cm; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></div><div style="margin: 0cm; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">attached it the Presentation and some Paper that might be usefull for you. In my opinion the one from Shipley and the one from Garrido are the most helpful ones.</div><div style="margin: 0cm; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></div><div style="margin: 0cm; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">If you want to use SEM, this link will be the most helpful!<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="https://jslefche.github.io/sem_book/index.html">https://jslefche.github.io/sem_book/index.html</a></div><div style="margin: 0cm; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></div><div style="margin: 0cm; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">Best,</div><div style="margin: 0cm; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">Lucie</div><div style="margin: 0cm; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></div><div style="margin: 0cm; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><span style="color: red;">(she/her)<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin: 0cm; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">PhD candidate<o:p></o:p></div><div style="margin: 0cm; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">General Zoology<o:p></o:p></div><div style="margin: 0cm; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg<o:p></o:p></div><div style="margin: 0cm; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">Hoher Weg 8<o:p></o:p></div><div style="margin: 0cm; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">06120 Halle (Saale)<o:p></o:p></div><div style="margin: 0cm; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><a href="mailto:lucie.baltz@zoologie.uni-halle.de">lucie.baltz@zoologie.uni-halle.de</a><o:p></o:p></div><div style="margin: 0cm; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></div><div style="margin: 0cm; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></div></div><span id="cid:331233CF-C526-475C-B10A-4B5A542FE629"><10705511.2020.1871355.pdf></span><span id="cid:997A5F8D-E56C-450A-9449-2D58E56332A8"><Ecology - 2013 - Shipley - The AIC model selection method applied to path analytic models compared using a dâ€separation.pdf></span><span id="cid:7166BA63-33A7-4182-9551-435E2780A9C8"><Methods Ecol Evol - 2021 - Garrido - A model selection approach tostructural equation modelling A critical evaluation and.pdf></span><span id="cid:65BAFDB0-D40C-4CF9-8B17-4DC8BE2DF3F5"><nihms661496.pdf></span><span id="cid:E971851F-F2B8-45AE-B2B3-AA5A3CD75EB7"><qt490131xj.pdf></span><span id="cid:CE4FA4A0-9B02-4623-9889-BEF9677F4E7A"><rohrer-et-al-2022-that-s-a-lot-to-process-pitfalls-of-popular-path-models.pdf></span><span id="cid:E5AB6159-10BD-472B-96C3-C863A6E96893"><s11135-017-0469-8.pdf></span><span id="cid:15A859E0-E1FC-49B4-A152-8287456112EA"><Structural Equation Modelling.pptx></span><span style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); 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