JDS Journal of Data Science 1683-86021680-743X1680-743X School of Statistics, Renmin University of China JDS1211 10.6339/25-JDS1211 Data Science Reviews Causal Inference: A Tale of Three Frameworks https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9728-5249 WangLinbolinbo.wang@utoronto.ca1∗ RichardsonThomas S.2 RobinsJames M.3 Department of Statistical Sciences, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada Department of Statistics, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, U.S.A. Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, U.S.A. Corresponding author. Email: linbo.wang@utoronto.ca. 2026112202624153858920258122025 2026 The Author(s). Published by the School of Statistics and the Center for Applied Statistics, Renmin University of China.2026 Open access article under the CC BY license.

Causal inference is a central goal across many scientific disciplines. Over the past several decades, three major frameworks have emerged to formalize causal questions and guide their analysis: the potential outcomes framework, structural equation models, and directed acyclic graphs. Although these frameworks differ in language, assumptions, and philosophical orientation, they often lead to compatible or complementary insights. This paper provides a comparative introduction to the three frameworks, clarifying their connections, highlighting their distinct strengths and limitations, and illustrating how they can be used together in practice. The discussion is aimed at researchers and graduate students with some background in statistics or causal inference who are seeking a conceptual foundation for applying causal methods across a range of substantive domains.

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