Ranked-Set Sampling (RSS)

The most basic sampling technique to use, when collecting data from a population for a sample survey, is that of simple random sampling (SRS). Ranked-set sampling (RSS) is an alternative probability sampling technique to SRS. While the items in an simple random sample might or might not be mutually independent (depending on whether sampling is with or without replacement), it is always the case that such a sample is designed so that each measured observation can be viewed as "representative" of the underlying population. Even with this probabilistic guarantee, however, there is still the possibility that a given simple random sample, just by mere chance, might not represent the underlying population well. That has led statisticians to consider a variety of ways to guard against ...