The consistency test may be too weak to be useful: Its systematic application would not improve effect size estimation in meta-analyses

If the consistency test were used to select papers for inclusion in meta-analysis, the resulting estimates of true effect sizes would be no less biased. Increasing its detection rate at the risk of a higher false alarm rate biases the pooled effect size estimates more-not less-because papers reporting large effect sizes are less likely to be judged inconsistent. © 2013 Elsevier Inc