Model population analysis for variable selection

To build a credible model for given chemical or biological or clinical data, it may be helpful to first get somewhat better insight into the data itself before modeling and then to present the statistically stable results derived from a large number of sub‐models established only on one dataset with the aid of Monte Carlo Sampling (MCS). In the present work, a concept model population analysis (MPA) is developed. Briefly, MPA could be considered as a general framework for developing new methods by statistically analyzing some interesting parameters (regression coefficients, prediction errors, etc.) of a number of sub‐models. New methods are expected to be developed by making full use of the interesting parameter in a novel manner. In this work, the elements of MPA are first considered and described. Then, the applications for variable selection and model assessment are emphasized with the help of MPA. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.