[R] Outliers

[Richard A. O'Keefe]

Last week there was a thread on outlier detection.
I came across an article which has a very interesting paragraph.

The article is
    Missing Values, Outliers, Robust Statistics, & Non-parametric Methods
    by Shaun Burke, RHM Techology Ltd, High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, UK.
It was the fourth article in a series which appeared in
    Scientific Data Management
in 1998 and 1998.

The very interesting paragraph is this:

    NB: It should be noted that following a
    judgement in a US court, the Food and
    Drug Administration 9FDA) in a guide -
    Guide to inspection of pharmaceutical
    quality control laboratories - has
    specifically prohibited the use of outlier
    tests.

Elsewhere, the article recommends the use of outlier tests as a way of
locating possible transcription errors, but NOT as a way of discarding data.