Bayesian multidimensional scaling procedure with variable selection

Multidimensional scaling methods are frequently used by researchers and practitioners to project high dimensional data into a low dimensional space. However, it is a challenge to integrate side information which is available along with the dissimilarities to perform such dimension reduction analysis. A novel Bayesian integrative multidimensional scaling procedure, namely Bayesian multidimensional scaling with variable selection, is proposed to incorporate external information on the objects into the analysis through the use of a latent multivariate regression structure. The proposed Bayesian procedure allows the incorporation of covari ate information into the dimension reduction analysis through the use of a variable selection strategy. An efficient computational algorithm to implement the procedure is also developed. A series of simulation experiments and a real data analysis are conducted, and the proposed model is shown to outperform several benchmark models based on some measures commonly used in the literature. (C) 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.