Using R Packages for Comparison of Cluster Stability

Abstract

The stability of clustering methods is the issue that has attracted a considerable amount of attention of researchers in recent years. In this respect, the major question that needs to be answered seems to be to what extent the structure discovered by a particular method is actually present in the data. The literature proposes a number of different ways of measuring stability. The theoretical considerations have led to the development of computer tools for the practical implementation of the proposed ways to study stability. The practical tools are available within several R packages, for example, clv, clValid, fpc, ClusterStability, and pvclust. Due to the hypothesis that cluster stability can be the answer to the question about the right number of groups in clustering, the main aim of this article is to compare the results of the studies on clustering stability conducted with three R packages, i.e.: clv, clValid, and fpc.