40 years after Aitchison's article 'The statistical analysis of compositional data': where we are and where we are heading

Abstract

The year 2022 marked 40 years since Aitchison published the article 'The statistical analysis of compositional data'. It is considered to be the foundation of contemporary compositional data analysis. It is time to review what has been accomplished in the feld and what needs to be addressed. Astonishingly enough, many aspects seen as challenging in 1982 continue to lead to fruitful scholarly work. We commence with a bibliometric study and continue with some hot topics such as multi-way compositions, compositional regression models, dealing with zero values, non-logratio transformations, new application felds, and a number of current loose ends. Finally, a tentative future research agenda is outlined

This article was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation/AEI/ 10.13039/501100011033 and by ERDF – A way of making Europe [grant numbers PID2021-123833OB-I00; PID2021-125380OB-I00], the Department of Research and Universities of the Generalitat de Catalunya [grant number 2021SGR01197], and the Czech Science Foundation [grant number 22-15684L]