The consistency test may be too weak to be useful: Its systematic application would not improve effect size estimation in meta-analyses

Abstract

If the consistency test were used to select papers for inclusion in meta-analysis, the resulting estimates of true effect sizes would be no less biased. Increasing its detection rate at the risk of a higher false alarm rate biases the pooled effect size estimates more - not less - because papers reporting large effect sizes are less likely to be judged inconsistent.

Citation

Vandekerckhove, J., Guan, M., & Styrcula, S. (2013). The consistency test may be too weak to be useful: Its systematic application would not improve effect size estimation in meta-analyses. Journal of Mathematical Psychology, 57, 170–173.

Bibtex

@article{vandekerckhove_etal:2013:consistency,
    title   = {{T}he consistency test may be too weak to be useful: {I}ts systematic application would not improve effect size estimation in meta-analyses},
    author  = {Vandekerckhove, Joachim and Guan, Maime and Styrcula, Steven},
    year    = {2013},
    journal = {Journal of Mathematical Psychology},
    volume  = {57},
    pages   = {170--173},
    doi     = {10.1016/j.jmp.2013.03.007}
}