English

Double arcsine transform not appropriate for meta-analysis

Methodology 2022-09-13 v2

Abstract

The variance-stabilizing Freeman-Tukey double arcsine transform was originally proposed for inference on single proportions. Subsequently, its use has been suggested in the context of meta-analysis of proportions. While some erratic behaviour has been observed previously, here we point out and illustrate general issues of monotonicity and invertibility that make this transform unsuitable for meta-analysis purposes.

Cite

@article{arxiv.2203.04773,
  title  = {Double arcsine transform not appropriate for meta-analysis},
  author = {Christian Röver and Tim Friede},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2203.04773},
  year   = {2022}
}

Comments

4 pages, 2 figures, 1 table

R2 v1 2026-06-24T10:07:24.883Z