[R-sig-ME] Guidelines for choosing family (and link) in lmer

[Sverre Stausland]

Hi all,

I was wondering whether there are any general guidelines out there
(online or in the literature) explaining how to choose the appropriate
call for "family" in the lmer function?

Right now, I have a data set where the dependent variable "looks
normal", but where shapiro.test and ks.test tell me it's not. It's not
clear to me whether I should still use "family=gaussian" or use
something else. (I'm not giving details here, because I am looking for
general guidelines).

Best
Sverre