The Box-Cox transformation, which requires a strictly
positive variable, can be used to rescale a variable to be more
similar to a normal distribution. In this package, the partial
log-likelihood function is directly optimized within a
reasonable set of transformation values (which can be changed by
the user).
This transformation is typically done on the outcome variable
using the residuals for a statistical model (such as ordinary
least squares). Here, a simple null model (intercept only) is
used to apply the transformation to the predictor
variables individually. This can have the effect of making the
variable distributions more symmetric.
If the transformation parameters are estimated to be very
closed to the bounds, or if the optimization fails, a value of
NA
is used and no transformation is applied.
When you tidy()
this step, a tibble with columns terms
(the
selectors or variables selected) and value
(the
lambda estimate) is returned.