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Better name for 4x rule

Posted by Birky on 21 Jul 2010 at 22:11 GMT

For simplicity, we will continue to refer to the procedure as using the “4× rule” when the 95% confidence limit is used.
http://plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0010609#article1.body1.sec1.p10

I urge readers to use the general term "K/θ method" for this method, as opposed to the "4x rule" which can be confused with arbitrary or empirically determined ratios. A better name for the 4x rule might be the K/θ(0.95) criterion. Those who wish to use a different confidence interval would be free to use, for example, K/θ(0.90) or K/θ(0.99). The appropriate K/θ ratio would be determined jointly by the chosen confidence interval and the sample size.

No competing interests declared.