The null model is used as a term of comparison, to verify whether the graph in question displays some feature, such as community structure, or not.

This is the null model for thinking about what would draw animals into groups to forage and how they would behave in the process.

Thereby, he devised the first null model in the history of ecology.

He championed the use of null models in community ecology.

The neutral theory of molecular evolution is used to study evolution as a null model against which tests for natural selection can be applied.

Adaptation: statistics and a null model for estimating phylogenetic effects.

Assembly rules, null models, and trait dispersion: new questions front old patterns.

In this respect, the null model provides a baseline upon which to compare predictor models.

The hypothesis has sparked controversy, and some authors consider it a more complex version of other null models that fit the data better.

This bias is inevitable for methods like modularity optimization, which rely on a global null model.