Formal Definition
Formally, the partial correlation between X and Y given a set of n controlling variables Z = {Z1, Z2, …, Zn}, written ρXY·Z, is the correlation between the residuals RX and RY resulting from the linear regression of X with Z and of Y with Z, respectively. In fact, the first-order partial correlation (i.e. when n=1) is nothing else than a difference between a correlation and the product of the removable correlations divided by the product of the coefficients of alienation of the removable correlations. The coefficient of alienation, and its relation with joint variance through correlation are available in Guilford (1973, pp. 344–345).
Read more about this topic: Partial Correlation
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