Abstract. This paper is intended to provide the reader with an introduction to
ranked set sampling, a statistical technique for data collection that generally
leads to more efficient estimators than competitors based on simple random
samples. Methods for obtaining ranked set samples are described and the
structural differences between ranked set samples and simple random samples
are discussed. Properties of the sample mean associated with a balanced ranked
set sample are developed. A nonparametric ranked set sample estimator of the
distribution function is discussed and properties of a ranked set sample analogue
of the Mann-Whitney-Wilcoxon statistic are presented.