ABSTRACT
This chapter explains that Kendall’s tau is one of a number of measures of correlation or association. Upon computing a measure of correlation, it is common practice to employ one or more inferential statistical tests in order to evaluate one or more hypotheses concerning the correlation coefficient. Upon computing Kendall’s tau, it is common practice to determine whether the obtained absolute value of the correlation coefficient is large enough to allow a researcher to conclude that the underlying population correlation coefficient between the two variables is some value other than zero. A partial correlation measures the degree of association between two variables after any association one or more additional variables has with the two variables has been removed.
