This Computational Provenance Record documents the statistical computing environment, software dependencies, computational provenance, and bibliographic references associated with the RAISINS Randomized Block Design (RBD) module. It is intended to support computational reproducibility and software transparency. Detailed statistical methodology, mathematical derivations, and user guidance are provided separately in the official module documentation.
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y ~ Treatment + Block (both taken as factors; no treatment × block interaction, which is the standard RBD assumption). One model fitted per response variable
Sums of squares
Sequential (Type I). For the balanced, orthogonal RBD layout this is identical to Type II and Type III
Error mean square (MSE)
Residual SS ÷ residual df, i.e. row 3 of the ANOVA table; reused by every post-hoc test
Block term
Reported with its own mean square, F and significance marker; blocks are treated as a nuisance factor and receive no post-hoc comparison
Effect size
(effectsize::cohens_f())
Treatment effect size
Partial Cohen's f for the treatment term
Significance & rounding
Significance level (α)
0.05 default (user-selectable: 0.05, 0.01)
Significance stars
** for p ≤ 0.01, * for p ≤ 0.05, NS otherwise (fixed thresholds, independent of the selected α; applied to both the treatment and the block row)
Pooled MSerror = MSE and DFerror = residual df from the blocked model; alpha = α. Comparisons are made on treatment means only
Grouping display
Letters and the CD value are shown only when the treatment p ≤ α; group labels ordered with gtools::mixedsort(); grouping is suppressed when the number of treatments exceeds 80
Critical value reported
CD/LSD (LSD), HSD (Tukey), or Duncan critical ranges (DMRT). The trait-wise Individual ANOVA table reports CD at both 5% and 1%
A single CD/critical difference is not defined once comparisons are adjusted, so the CD row is omitted; the adjusted result is carried by the grouping letters
Standard errors
SEM
sqrt(MSE / r), where r is the number of blocks (= replications per treatment)
SED
sqrt(2 × MSE / r)
Data transformations
(optional, per variable)
Logarithmic
log10(x); if any value ≤ 0, log10(x - min(x) + 1)
Square-root
sqrt(x); if any value = 0, sqrt(x + 0.5); blocked on negative values
Arcsine
asin(sqrt(x)) on proportions in [0, 1]; 0 and 1 replaced by 1/(4n) and 1 - 1/(4n)
MANOVA
(multi-response mode)
Model & test statistic
manova(Y ~ Treatment + Block); Pillai's trace (the stats::manova() default), tidied with broom::tidy(), with partial η² for both terms
Requirement
At least two response variables, and the number of treatments must exceed the number of response variables
5 R Code for Key Analytical Steps
The code blocks below demonstrate the exact computation behind each reported result using immer (from the MASS package, which ships with R): Immer’s barley trial, a textbook randomized block design in which 5 varieties are grown at 6 locations acting as blocks, one plot per variety per block, with yields recorded in two years (Y1, Y2).
5.1 Two-Way Additive ANOVA and Effect Size
d <- MASS::immer # 5 varieties x 6 locations (blocks), 30 plotstreatment <-factor(d$Var) # treatment factorblock <-factor(d$Loc) # block factory <- d$Y1 # response variable# Blocked linear model and ANOVA table (mirrors the module; one model per response)model <-lm(y ~ treatment + block)result <-anova(model)result # treatment F = 4.23, p = 0.0121# block F = 21.89, p = 1.75e-07# Error (residual) mean square and df, reused by the post-hoc testsMSE <- result[3, 3] # 162.89dferr <- result[3, 1] # 20# Partial Cohen's f effect size; the module reports the treatment roweffectsize::cohens_f(model)[1, 2] # 0.9199
5.2 Post-hoc Mean Comparison (LSD default; Tukey / DMRT alternatives)
alpha <-0.05# default significance level# Least Significant Difference (default): agricolae uses the pooled MSE and# residual df from the blocked model; grouping letters ordered with mixedsort.out <- agricolae::LSD.test(y, treatment, DFerror = dferr, MSerror = MSE,alpha = alpha, p.adj ="none")out$groups[gtools::mixedsort(rownames(out$groups)), ]out$statistics # MSerror, Df, Mean, CV, t.value, LSD (= CD)# Letters and the CD value are printed only when the treatment effect is significant:if (result[1, 5] > alpha) out$groups[, 2] <-""# Optional p-value adjustment for LSD (default "none"; selectable: bonferroni, holm, BH).# agricolae applies the correction internally and recomputes the grouping letters.agricolae::LSD.test(y, treatment, DFerror = dferr, MSerror = MSE, alpha = alpha,p.adj ="bonferroni")$groups# Alternatives selectable in the app (same DFerror / MSerror / alpha arguments):# Tukey HSD -> agricolae::HSD.test(y, treatment, DFerror = dferr, MSerror = MSE, alpha = alpha)# DMRT -> agricolae::duncan.test(y, treatment, DFerror = dferr, MSerror = MSE, alpha = alpha)# Standard errors from the pooled MSE (r = number of blocks)r <- out$means[1, 3] # 6SEM <-sqrt(MSE / r) # 5.2104SED <-sqrt(2* MSE / r) # 7.3686
5.3 MANOVA Across Multiple Responses (multi-response mode)
# The app's MANOVA mode requires >= 2 response columns (one per measured trait)# and more treatments than response variables. Both factors are carried over# from the univariate model, so the block effect is estimated as well.Y <-as.matrix(d[, c("Y1", "Y2")])res.man <-manova(Y ~ treatment + block)broom::tidy(res.man) # Pillai's trace per termeffectsize::eta_squared(res.man) # partial eta-squared per term
Explore the entire Randomized Block Design (RBD) module in preview mode using our demo datasets. To submit suggestions or report a workflow issue, please use the discussion section below, or visit the official RAISINS website.
6 RAISINS Native Statistical Framework
RAISINS uses R for all its statistical computations. Every package used to generate major results is listed and demonstrated with examples, so results can be reproduced independently. These results are then organized and formatted on the RAISINS website along with visualisation to make them easier to use and interpret. RAISINS also has its own custom-built statistical tools for managing workflows, validating results, and generating reports. Details of these are not fully covered here, they’re shared with outside researchers only on request, and are subject to licensing terms.
7 Package References
R Core Team. (2025). R: A language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna, Austria. https://www.R-project.org/
de Mendiburu, F. (2023). agricolae: Statistical Procedures for Agricultural Research (R package version 1.3-7). https://doi.org/10.32614/CRAN.package.agricolae
Ben-Shachar, M. S., Lüdecke, D., & Makowski, D. (2020). effectsize: Estimation of Effect Size Indices and Standardized Parameters (R package version 1.0.1). https://doi.org/10.32614/CRAN.package.effectsize
Robinson, D., Hayes, A., & Couch, S. (2025). broom: Convert Statistical Objects into Tidy Tibbles (R package version 1.0.12). https://doi.org/10.32614/CRAN.package.broom
Warnes, G. R., Bolker, B., & Lumley, T. (2023). gtools: Various R Programming Tools (R package version 3.9.5). https://doi.org/10.32614/CRAN.package.gtools
Wickham, H., François, R., Henry, L., Müller, K., & Vaughan, D. (2023). dplyr: A Grammar of Data Manipulation (R package version 1.1.4). https://doi.org/10.32614/CRAN.package.dplyr
Wickham, H., Vaughan, D., & Girlich, M. (2025). tidyr: Tidy Messy Data (R package version 1.3.2). https://doi.org/10.32614/CRAN.package.tidyr
Venables, W. N., & Ripley, B. D. (2002). Modern Applied Statistics with S (4th ed.). Springer. (MASS R package version 7.3-65). https://doi.org/10.32614/CRAN.package.MASS