On the Indeterminacy of Resemblance Measures for Binary (Presence/Absence) Data

  • Authors:

  • Matthijs J. Warrens

  • Affiliations:

  • Psychometrics and Research Methodology Group, Leiden University Institute for Psychological Research, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands 2300 RB

  • Venue:
  • Journal of Classification
  • Year:
  • 2008

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Abstract

Many similarity coefficients for binary data are defined as fractions. For certain resemblance measures the denominator may become zero. If the denominator is zero the value of the coefficient is indeterminate. It is shown that the seriousness of the indeterminacy problem differs with the resemblance measures. Following Batagelj and Bren (1995) we remove the indeterminacies by defining appropriate values in critical cases.