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MRC Biostatistics Unit

BUGS is a language and various software packages for Bayesian inference Using Gibbs Sampling, conceived and initially developed at the BSU. Throughout its life span of over 30 years, BUGS has been highly influential in enabling the routine use of Bayesian methods.


WinBUGS

Download the zip file and unzip this to the place where you want to install.  The program will then be found in WinBUGS14/WinBUGS14.exe. This is the latest, unlocked version, and there is no need for an additional "patch" or "key". WinBUGS license text.

OpenBUGS

Download either the Windows installer or the zip file. The zip file should work if the the installer does not work - simply unzip it to the place where you want to install.  The program will then be found in OpenBUGS323/OpenBUGS.exe.  OpenBUGS is under the GNU General Public Licence version 3.

MultiBUGS

A more recent program, similar to OpenBUGS, but with facilities for parallel computation.   This is hosted on GitHub. See the issues page for problem reports.

 


While these programs are made available here, they are no longer actively developed.  For "help" questions about modelling in BUGS, please seek advice from the community via the public mailing list at https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/bugs.html.

BUGS has inspired a large field of Bayesian modelling and "probabilistic programming" software.  Currently widely-used and actively-developed programs in this area include:
* JAGS: https://mcmc-jags.sourceforge.io (based on BUGS, but easily used across different platforms)
* Stan: https://mc-stan.org (with efficient gradient-based computation and a large community of users)
* NIMBLE: https://r-nimble.org (which allows the user to write and customise the sampling algorithms)
* Turing: https://turinglang.org (based on the Julia language)