<p>We have a <a href="https://stats.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/data-generating-process" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged &#39;data-generating-process&#39;" rel="tag">data-generating-process</a> tag with 20 Qs, no wiki excerpt, and a synonym <a href="https://stats.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/dgp" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged &#39;dgp&#39;" rel="tag">dgp</a>.</p>

<p>Wikipedia mentions at least three different interpretations of the term: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_generating_process" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_generating_process</a></p>

<p>It seems to have a specific meaning in econometrics, from which the acronym DGP appears to be derived, see for example <a href="http://www.rimini.unibo.it/fanelli/econometric_models2_2012.pdf" rel="nofollow noreferrer">here</a> or <a href="https://stats.stackexchange.com/questions/7836/in-regression-analysis-whats-the-difference-between-data-generation-process-and">here</a>, or even more generally in the context of regression, <a href="http://fedc.wiwi.hu-berlin.de/xplore/tutorials/xegbohtmlnode5.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">where the population regression function PRF is a feature of the DGP</a>.</p>

<p>However, vaguer usage of the term, similar to the first definition give in Wikipedia ("the data-collection process") also seems to be used elsewhere, e.g. <a href="https://www.coursera.org/learn/leadership-marketing/lecture/At3ej/the-data-generating-process" rel="nofollow noreferrer">here</a>.</p>

<p>In what sense is it supposed to be used on CrossValidated? I.e., what should be its usage guidelines?</p>
