Comparative performance of heterogeneity variance estimators in meta‐analysis: a review of simulation studies

Random-effects meta-analysis methods include an estimate of between-study heterogeneity variance. We present a systematic review of simulation studies comparing the performance of different estimation methods for this parameter. We summarise the performance of methods in relation to estimation of heterogeneity and of the overall effect estimate, and of confidence intervals for the latter. Among the twelve included simulation studies, the...