Table 3 Parameters or factors varied in the present simulation work

Overall effect

(\({\mu }_{\theta }\))

0.5

Amount of heterogeneity

(\({\tau }^{2}\))

0.000, 0.010, 0.025, 0.050, 0.075, 0.100, 0.250, 0.500, 0.750, 1.000

Number of studies

(\(k\))

10, 30, 50, 70, 90

Average sample size

(\(N\))

20, 40, 60, 80, 100

Skewness and kurtosis of the random-effects distribution

(\(s\))

(0, 0), (− 2, 3.65), (− 1, 0.47), (0, − 0.58), (1, 0.51), (2, 3.74)

Replications

1,000