Figure 1

<p>Estimated values of <i>k̂</i> and confidence interval coverage for NB datasets. 10,000 datasets were simulated as described in Section 2.1.1 of the text, using mean <i>m</i>, dispersion parameter <i>k</i>, and sample size <i>n</i> as shown. Boxes show the median and interquartile range (IQR) of 10,000 resulting ML estimates of <i>k̂</i>, and whiskers show the 5^th and 95^th percentile values. Numbers to the right of each subplot show the percentage of simulations for which the true value of <i>k</i> was outside (below (CI overestimate)/above (CI underestimate) for the numbers <i>y</i>/<i>z</i>, respectively) the 90% confidence interval estimated for <i>k̂</i> The vertical line in each subplot shows the true value of <i>k</i>. To facilitate comparison among parameter sets, the horizontal axis of all subplots is scaled from 0 to 10 times the true value of <i>k</i>.