Kinetic relations have been observed in many systems and, since their conception, have gone by many terms, among which are the Meyer-Neldel effect or rule, the Barclay-Butler rule, the theta rule, and the Smith-Topley effect. Generally, chemists will talk about the isokinetic relation (IKR), from the importance of the isokinetic (or isoequilibrium) temperature, condensed matter physicists and material scientists use the Meyer-Neldel rule, and biologists will use the compensation effect or rule.
An interesting homework problem appears following Chapter 7: Structure-Reactivity Relationships in Kenneth Connorss textbook Chemical Kinetics: The Study of Reaction Rates':
:From the last four digits of the office telephone numbers of the faculty in your department, systematically construct pairs of "rate constants" as two-digit numbers times 10 s at temperatures 300 K and 315 K (obviously the larger rate constant of each pair to be associated with the higher temperature). Make a two-point Arrhenius plot for each faculty member, evaluating  and . Examine the plot of  against  for evidence of an isokinetic relationship.
The existence of any real compensation effect has been widely derided in recent years and attributed to the analysis of interdependent factors and chance. Because the physical roots remain to be fully understood, it has been called into question whether compensation is a truly physical phenomenon or a coincidence due to trivial mathematical connections between parameters. The compensation effect has been criticized in other respects, namely for being the result of random experimental and systematic errors producing the appearance of compensation. The principal complaint lodged states that compensation is an artifact of data from a limited temperature range or from a limited range for the free energies.
In response to the criticisms, investigators have stressed that compensatory phenomena are real, but appropriate and in-depth data analysis is always needed. The F-test has been used to such an aim, and it minimizes the deviations of points constrained to pass through an isokinetic temperature to the deviation of the points from the unconstrained line is achieved by comparing the mean deviations of points. Appropriate statistical tests should be performed as well. W. Linert wrote in a 1983 paper:
:There are few topics in chemistry in which so many misunderstandings and controversies have arisen as in connection with the so-called isokinetic relationship (IKR) or compensation law. Up to date, a great many chemists appear to be inclined to dismiss the IKR as being accidental. The crucial problem is that the activation parameters are mutually dependent because of their determination from the experimental data. Therefore, it has been stressed repeatedly, the isokinetic plot (i.e.,  against ) is unfit in principle to substantiate a claim of an isokinetic relationship. At the same time, however, it is a fatal error to dismiss the IKR because of that fallacy.
Common among all defenders is the agreement that stringent criteria for the assignment of true compensation effects must be adhered to.