Graphically representing a nested 4 way ANOVA

Question

I ran an experiment with 4 factors A, B, C, and D.

Factor C is nested within B.

The results of the ANOVA show:

C had a significant effect

and

AxB had a significant interaction

D had no significant effect, but in this case, D is species, and I want to compare these two species side by side.

So when I want to present these graphically, should I show:

a graph with C and D PLUS another graph with AxB and D

OR

A graph showing all four factors.

I ask because factor C has 9 levels, and I have 4 different response variables I'd like to show (length, height, width, mortality), so there are quite a few graphs that will be coming from this if I show all factors.

Answer 1

This may be a greater pain to explain and digest than to display, no reason why it cannot be a simple 2D bar plot e.g. by adding an extra factor to a layout similar to Fig. 3D in this example. If A and B had a significant interaction and C is nested within B, it would be more correct to show A, B, and C in the same figure, and either have a separate figure/panel for the two levels of D or have all 4 factors together. Alternatively, it can be represented using 3D tools (bars or heatmaps) or a combination of 2D bars (to properly show variability and interactions) and a heatmap to better highlight the strength of response patterns, which may be needed if the total number of factor combinations is very large. As a side note, morphometric measures tend to be highly correlated.