Table B1.
Meta‐Essentials | CMA | Commands for Stata Discussed by Palmer and Sterne11 | meta and metafor package for R | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Basic characteristics | Version | 1.1 | 3.3.070 |
Versions available from the statistical software components archive on April 20, 2017. eg, metan 3.04, metareg 2.6.1, and metafunnel 1.0.2. Stata 14.1 |
meta 4.8–0 metafor 1.9–9. R 3.3.3 |
Website | www.meta‐essentials.om | www.meta‐analysis.om | http://www.stata‐press.com/books/meta‐analysis‐in‐stata/ |
meta: http://meta‐analysis‐with‐r.org
metafor: http://www.metafor‐project.org/ |
|
Freeware/commercial | Freeware | Commercial | Freeware | Freeware | |
Prerequisite software | Microsoft Excel (commercial) | None | Stata (commercial) | R (freeware) | |
Operating systems | Windows, Mac OS | Windows | Windows, Mac OS, Linux | Windows, Mac OS, Linux | |
Supporting material | Documentation | User manual, website, this paper | Borenstein et al,1 website, and tutorials | Palmer and Sterne,11 website, and help function in Stata |
meta: Schwarzer et al,74 website, and help function in R metafor: Viechtbauer,16 website, and help function in R |
Input | Effect size calculation | d and r families | d and r families | d and r families | d and r families |
Method settings | User interface | Graphical user interface | Graphical user interface | Syntax | Syntax |
Adaptability | Full | Limited | Full | Full | |
Between‐study variance estimators | DL | DL, (RE) | DL, EB, HE, (RE), SJ |
meta: DL, PM metafor: DL, EB, HE, HS, PM, (RE)ML, SJ |
|
Weighting methods | IV, MH, Peto | IV, MH, Peto | IV, MH, Peto | IV, MH, Peto | |
Output | Confidence and prediction interval | Both | CI only | Both available, CI default | Both available, CI default |
Confidence interval distributions | KNHA Student's t |
Normal or Student's t
(KNHA Student's t in meta‐regression) |
Normal or KNHA Student's t | Normal or KNHA Student's t | |
Automated forest plot | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
Subgroup‐analyses | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
Meta‐regression | Yes, single covariate | Yes, multiple covariates | Yes, multiple covariates | Yes, multiple covariates | |
Funnel plot and trim‐and‐fill | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
Failsafe‐N | Yes | Yes | Yes |
meta: No metafor: Yes |
MIX Pro | OpenMeta[Analyst] | RevMan | Syntaxes for SPSS by Field land Gillett17 and Wilson18 | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Basic characteristics | Version | 2.0.1.5 | None indicated | 5.3.5 |
Field and Gillett: Version number not provided. Website last updated September 2010. Wilson: Version number not provided. SPSS statistics syntax file in. Zip‐file dates from September 20, 2006. SPSS 23.0.0.0 |
Website | http://www.meta‐analysis‐made‐easy.com/ | http://www.cebm.brown.edu/openmeta/ | http://tech.cochrane.org/revman |
Field and Gillett: https://www.discoveringstatistics.com/repository/fieldgillett/how_to_do_a_meta_analysis.html
Wilson: http://mason.gmu.edu/~dwilsonb/ma.html |
|
Freeware / commercial | Commercial | Freeware | Freeware | Freeware | |
Prerequisite software | Microsoft excel (commercial) | None | None | SPSS (commercial) | |
Operating systems | Windows | Windows (only 64‐bit) and Mac OS | Windows, Mac OS, Linux | Windows, Mac OS, Linux | |
Supporting material | Documentation | Tips & tricks and meta‐tutor (embedded) | Wallace et al.13 and website | Cochrane handbook19 and user guide |
Field and Gillett: Field and Gillett17 and website Wilson: Lipsey and Wilson84 and website |
Input | Effect size calculation | d family | d family | d family | No |
Method settings | User interface | Graphical user interface | Graphical user interface and syntax | Graphical user interface | Syntax |
Adaptability | Limited | Full | Limited | Full | |
Between‐study variance estimators | DL | DL, EB, HE, HS, PM, (RE), SJ | DL |
Field and Gillett: DL, HS Wilson: DL, (RE)ML |
|
Weighting methods | IV, MH | IV, MH, Peto | IV, MH, Peto | IV | |
Output | Confidence and prediction interval | CI only | CI only | Both | CI only |
Confidence interval distributions | Normal or Student's t | Normal or KNHA Student's t | Normal | Normal | |
Automated forest plot | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | |
Subgroup‐analyses | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | |
Meta‐regression | Yes, single covariate | Yes, multiple covariates | No | Yes, multiple covariates | |
Funnel plot and trim‐and‐fill | Yes | No |
Yes; No trim and fill |
Field and Gillet: Only funnel plot Wilson: No |
|
Failsafe‐N | Yes | No | No |
Field and Gillet: Yes Wilson: No |
Abbreviations: Between‐study variance estimators include the following: DL, DerSimonian‐Laird; (RE)ML, (Restricted) Maximum Likelihood; PM, Paule‐Mandel; HE, Hedges; SJ, Sidik‐Jonkman; and EB, Empirical Bayes. Models for calculating the weights of individual studies include the following: IV, inverse variance; MH, Mantel‐Haenszel; and Peto. CIs can be based on the standard normal distribution, the Student's t distribution, or the Student's t distribution with KNHA; see Section 3.2.5.