Discussions:

Wilcoxon rank sum test is another version of Wilcoxon test.

Wilcoxon rank sum test

- Is a nonparametric test of the null hypothesis that, for randomly selected values X and Y from
two populations, the probability of X being greater than Y is equal to the probability of Y being
greater than X.
- A nonparametric test that can be used to determine whether two independent samples were
selected from populations having the same distribution.
 Is used to test whether two samples are likely to derive from the same population (i.e.,
that the two populations have the same shape). Some investigators interpret this test as
comparing the medians between the two populations
- The Wilcoxon Rank Sum test is used to test for a difference between two samples. It is the
nonparametric counterpart to the two-sample Z or t test. Instead of comparing two population
means, we compare two population medians. 

- Whereas the null hypothesis of the two-sample t test is equal means, the null hypothesis of the
Wilcoxon test is usually taken as equal medians. Another way to think of the null is that the two
populations have the same distribution with the same median. If we reject the null, that means
we have evidence that one distribution is shifted to the left or right of the other. Since we’re
assuming our distributions are equal, rejecting the null means we have evidence that the
medians of the two populations differ.
- And both samples sizes must be greater than or equal to 10.

The characteristics of Wilcoxon rank sum test are:

Characteristics:

1. There is one dependent variable that is measured at the continuous or ordinal level.

You have one dependent variable that is measured at the continuous or ordinal level. Examples

of continuous variables include revision time (measured in hours), intelligence (measured using IQ
score), weight (measured in kg), and so forth. And 4 Examples of ordinal variables include Likert items
(e.g., a 7-point scale from "strongly agree" through to "strongly disagree"), amongst other ways of
ranking categories (e.g., a 5-point scale explaining how much a customer liked a product, ranging from
"Not very much" to "Yes, a lot").

2. There is one independent variable that consists of two categorical, independent groups

You have one independent variable that consists of two categorical, independent groups. Example

independent variables that meet this criterion include gender (two groups: "males" or "females"),
employment status (two groups: "employed" or "unemployed"), transport type (two groups: "bus" or
"car") and so forth.

3.  There is independence of observations

You should have independence of observations, which means that there is no relationship between the
observations in each group of the independent variable or between the groups themselves. For
example, there must be different participants in each group with no participant being in more than one
group.

4. The distribution of scores for both groups of independent variable have the same shape or a different
shape. 

You must determine whether the distribution of scores for both groups of your independent
variable (e.g., the distribution of scores for "males" and the distribution of scores for "females" for the
independent variable, "gender") have the same shape or a different shape.

Limitations:

• The test does not use group means and standard deviations as estimations of population
parameters, it is not beholden to the assumption of normality. It is therefore considered an
excellent nonparametric alternative to the independent t test in cases where populations might
not be normally distributed

When to use:

• Use the Wilcoxon rank sum test to determine if two independent samples are
selected from populations having the same distribution.

• In other words, used when comparison is made between two independent

groups.

• A nonparametric alternative to the unpaired t-test is given by the Wilcoxon rank

sum test, which is also known as the Mann–Whitney test.