The ability to implement statistical models in the BUGS language facilitates Bayesian in ference by automating MCMC algorithms. Software packages that interpret the BUGS language include OpenBUGS, WinBUGS, and JAGS. R packages that link BUGS software to the R environment, including rjags and R2WinBUGS, are widely used in Bayesian analysis. Indeed, many packages in the Bayesian task view on CRAN (http://cran.r-project.org/web/views/Bayesian.html) depend on this integration. However, the R and BUGS languages use different representations of common probability density functions, creating a potential for errors to occur in the implementation or interpre tation of analyses that use both languages. Here we review different parameterizations used by the R and BUGS languages, describe how to translate between the languages, and provide an R function, r2bugs.distributions, that transforms parameterizations from R to BUGS and back again.
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For attribution, please cite this work as
LeBauer, et al., "The R Journal: Translating Probability Density Functions: From R to BUGS and Back Again", The R Journal, 2013
BibTeX citation
@article{RJ-2013-020,
author = {LeBauer, David S. and Dietze, Michael C. and Bolker, Benjamin M.},
title = {The R Journal: Translating Probability Density Functions: From R to BUGS and Back Again},
journal = {The R Journal},
year = {2013},
note = {https://doi.org/10.32614/RJ-2013-020},
doi = {10.32614/RJ-2013-020},
volume = {5},
issue = {1},
issn = {2073-4859},
pages = {207-209}
}