A note on the Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney test and tied observations.

Recently, it was recommended to omit tied observations before applying the two-sample Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney test McGee M. et al. (2018). Using a simulation study, we argue for exact tests using all the data (including tied values) as a preferable approach. Exact tests, with tied observations included guarantee the type I error rate with a better exploitation of the significance level and a larger power than the corresponding tests after the omission of tied observations. The omission of ties can produce a considerable change in the shape of the sample, and so can violate underlying test assumptions. Thus, on both theoretical and practical grounds, the recommendation to omit tied values cannot be supported, relative to analysing the whole data set in the same way whether or not ties occur, preferably with an exact permutation test.
Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
(Copyright: © 2024 Neuhäuser, Ruxton. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)