A cautionary note on the use of unsupervised machine learning algorithms to characterise malaria parasite population structure from genetic distance matrices

• James A. Watson ,

  Roles Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Software, Validation, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing

  * E-mail: jwatowatson@gmail.com

  Affiliations Mahidol-Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Unit, Faculty of Tropical Medicine, Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand, Centre for Tropical Medicine and Global Health, Nuffield Department of Medicine, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom

  https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5524-0325

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• Aimee R. Taylor,

  Roles Conceptualization, Methodology, Supervision, Validation, Visualization, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing

  Affiliations Center for Communicable Disease Dynamics, Department of Epidemiology, Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts, USA, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA

  https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2337-8992

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• Elizabeth A. Ashley,

  Roles Resources, Validation, Writing – review & editing

  Affiliations Centre for Tropical Medicine and Global Health, Nuffield Department of Medicine, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom, Lao-Oxford-Mahosot Hospital Wellcome Trust Research Unit, Vientiane, Laos

  https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7620-4822

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• Arjen Dondorp,

  Roles Resources, Validation, Writing – review & editing

  Affiliations Mahidol-Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Unit, Faculty of Tropical Medicine, Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand, Centre for Tropical Medicine and Global Health, Nuffield Department of Medicine, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom

  https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5190-2395

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• Caroline O. Buckee,

  Roles Supervision, Validation, Writing – review & editing

  Affiliation Center for Communicable Disease Dynamics, Department of Epidemiology, Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

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• Nicholas J. White,

  Roles Funding acquisition, Resources, Supervision, Validation, Writing – review & editing

  Affiliations Mahidol-Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Unit, Faculty of Tropical Medicine, Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand, Centre for Tropical Medicine and Global Health, Nuffield Department of Medicine, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom

  https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1897-1978

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• Chris C. Holmes

  Roles Conceptualization, Supervision, Validation, Writing – review & editing

  Affiliations Department of Statistics, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom, Nuffield Department of Medicine, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom

  https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6667-4943

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