*! version 1.1.0 05Feb2026

Title

tau2ci - Compute standard error and confidence interval for the tau-squared statistic in random-effects meta-analysis

Syntax

tau2ci
[, level(#)]

meta regress with a random-effects method must be estimated prior to running tau2ci

level(#) set confidence level; default is level(95)

Description

tau2ci is a post-estimation command that computes the standard error and
confidence interval for the between-study variance component tau-squared statistic
after fitting a random-effects meta-regression model using meta regress
with the random() option. It supports all random-effects estimation methods
currently available in Stata's meta suite. tau2ci uses the
standard error formulas implemented in the metafor
package in R. Note that the lower limit will be truncated at 0 if it is less than 0, and the upper limit will
be truncated at 1 if it is greater than 1.

Options

level(#); see [R] Estimation options.

Examples

Random-effects meta-regression with only the constant (same as running meta summary)

. webuse bcgset, clear

. meta esize npost nnegt nposc nnegc, esize(lnrratio) studylabel(studylbl)

. meta regress _cons, random(reml)

. tau2ci

meta regress with moderators

. meta regress latitude_c, random(sjonkman)

. tau2ci

set level to 90

. tau2ci, level(90)

Stored results

tau2ci stores the following in r():

Scalars

r(tau2) estimated tau-squared statistic

r(se) standard error of the tau-squared statistic

r(ll) lower confidence limit for the tau-squared statistic

r(ul) upper confidence limit for the tau-squared statistic

Macros

r(method) random-effects estimation method used

References

Viechtbauer, W. 2005. Bias and efficiency of meta-analytic variance estimators
in the random-effects model.
Journal of Educational and Behavioral Statistics 30: 261–293.

Viechtbauer, W. 2010. Conducting meta-analyses in R with the metafor package.
Journal of Statistical Software 36(3): 1–48.

Citation of tau2ci

tau2ci is not an official Stata command. It is a free contribution
to the research community, like a paper. Please cite it as such:

Linden A. (2026). TAU2CI: Stata module to compute standard error and confidence interval for the tau-squared statistic in random-effects meta-analysis.
Statistical Software Components S459581, Boston College Department of Economics. https://ideas.repec.org/c/boc/bocode/s459581.html

Author

Ariel Linden

Linden Consulting Group, LLC

alinden@lindenconsulting.org

Also See

meta regress