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| Title | STB FAQ | |
| Author | Stata Technical Support |
Note: The Stata Technical Bulletin (STB) has changed to the Stata Journal.
For ten years, the Stata Technical Bulletin served as a means of distributing new commands and Stata updates, both community-contributed and “official”. The last issue of the STB was published in June 2001. The following FAQ was preserved to inform new Stata users about the nature of the STB.
The Stata Technical Bulletin (STB, ISN 1097-8879), which you pay to subscribe to, is a printed journal containing articles related to Stata and software additions to Stata. An electronic version of the journal is also available.
In addition, accompanying each issue is software that can be installed into Stata. The software is available for free over the Internet, to both subscribers and nonsubscribers. For those without an Internet connection, media is available and can be ordered. Contact StataCorp for pricing information.
The STB exists to promote communication among Stata users of all disciplines and all levels of sophistication. The STB contains articles written by Stata users, StataCorp employees, and others.
In practice, the STB has become the vehicle by which new features are first added to Stata and distributed.
The Editor of the STB is
H. Joseph Newton
Department of Statistics
Texas A&M University
College Station, Texas 77843
979-845-3132
979-845-3144 FAX
[email protected]
The Associate Editors of the STB are
Christopher Baum, Boston College
Nicholas J. Cox, Durham University
Joanne M. Garrett, University of North Carolina
Marcello Pagano, Harvard School of Public Health
J. Patrick Royston, UK Medical Research Council
Jeroen Weesie, Utrecht University
The STB is published by Stata Press, a division of StataCorp LP.
Articles in the STB are called inserts.
Each insert in the STB is assigned a letter-number code such as xyz42, xyz43, or xyz43.1.
A number such as xyz42 indicates that this article is number 42 in the xyz category.
A number such as xyz43.1 indicates that this article is an update of the original xyz43 article. The authors could be the same or different. The following category codes are used:
| General categories: | |||
|
an cc dm dt gr in |
announcements communications & letters data management datasets graphics instruction |
ip os qs tt zz |
instruction on programming operating system, hardware, & interprogram communication questions and suggestions teaching not elsewhere classified |
| Statistical categories: | |||
|
sbe sed sg smv snp sqc sqv srd |
biostatistics & epidemiology exploratory data analysis general statistics multivariate analysis nonparametric methods quality control analysis of qualitative variables robust methods & statistical diagnostics |
ssa ssi sss sts svy sxd szz |
survival analysis simulation & random numbers social science & psychometrics time-series & econometrics survey sampling experimental design not elsewhere classified |
The appropriate citation for an STB insert is
Author Name. Year. insert_number: Title. Stata Technical Bulletin issue_number: page_range.
For example,
Wright, E. and P. Royston. 1997. sbe15: Age-specific reference intervals for normally distributed data. Stata Technical Bulletin 38: 4-9.
If you found the same article in the STB Reprints, an appropriate citation would be
Wright, E. and P. Royston. 1998. sbe15: Age-specific reference intervals for normally distributed data. In The Stata Technical Bulletin Reprints, vol. 7, ed. H. J. Newton, 93-100. College Station, TX: StataCorp.
Issues were published in January, March, May, July, September, and November of each year. Issues are numbered sequentially and are referred to as STB-1, STB-2, and so on. STB-49, for instance, refers to the May 1999 issue.
The STB began publication in May 1991 (referred to as STB-1).
In March of every year, a bound book was printed containing the previous year’s worth of issues, May through March. These books are referred to as the STB Reprints.
Please note that Volume 10 contains seven issues of the STB, because it is the last Reprints volume.
Subscriptions to the STB are no longer available; instead, we suggest that you subscribe to the Stata Journal.
The STB is no longer available for purchase. We recommend you check out the Stata Journal.
You can view PDFs of past STB issues.
Below we use Stata’s [R] search command to list all relevant entries for "meta analysis":
. search meta analysis
[R] meta . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Meta analysis
STB-58 sbe19.3 . . . . Tests for publication bias in meta-analysis: erratum
(help metabias if installed) . . . . . . . . . . . . . T. J. Steichen
11/00
correction to the help file
STB-58 sbe39.1 Nonpar. trim & fill anal. of pub. bias in meta-anal.: erratum
(help metatrim if installed) . . . . . . . . . . . . . T. J. Steichen
11/00
correction to the help file
STB-57 sbe19.2 . . . . Update of tests for publication bias in meta-analysis
(help metabias if installed) . . . . . . . . . . . . . T. J. Steichen
9/00
enhancements to the metabias command
STB-57 sbe39 Nonpar. trim & fill anal. of publication bias in meta-analysis
(help metatrim if installed) . . . . . . . . . . . . . T. J. Steichen
9/00
implementation of the Duval and Tweedie nonparametric "trim
and fill" method of accounting for publication bias in
meta-analysis
STB-56 sbe20.1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Update of galbr
(help galbr if installed) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A. Tobias
7/00
minor fix
STB-56 sbe26.1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Update of metainf
(help metainf if installed) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A. Tobias
7/00
minor fix
STB-56 sbe28.1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Update of metap
(help metap if installed) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A. Tobias
7/00
minor fix
STB-49 sbe28 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Meta-analysis of p-values
(help metap if installed) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A. Tobias
5/99 STB Reprints Vol 9, pages 138—140
combines p-values using either Fisher's method or Edgington's method
STB-47 sbe26 . . Assessing the influence of a single study in meta-analysis
(help metainf, meta if installed) . . . . . . . . . . . . . A. Tobias
1/99 STB Reprints Vol 8, pages 108—110
graphical technique to look for influential studies in the
meta-analysis estimate
STB-45 sbe24.1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Correction to funnel plot
(help funnel if installed) . . . M. Bradburn, J. Deeks, and D. Altman
9/98 STB Reprints Vol 8, page 100
STB-44 sbe24 . . . . . . . . . metan — an alternative meta-analysis command
(help metan if installed) . . . . . . . . . Bradburn, Deeks, & Altman
7/98 STB Reprints Vol 8, pages 86—100
meta-analysis command for studies with two groups
STB-44 sbe19.1 . . . . . . . . . Tests for publication bias in meta-analysis
(help metabias, ktau2 if installed) . . . . Steichen, Egger, & Sterne
7/98 STB Reprints Vol 8, pages 84—85
four improvements to metabias program
STB-43 sbe16.2 . . . . . . . . . . Corrections to the meta-analysis command
(help meta if installed) . . . . . . . . . . . S. Sharp and J. Sterne
5/98 STB Reprints Vol 8, page 84
corrects a few minor bugs in meta command
STB-42 sbe23 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Meta-analysis regression
(help metareg if installed) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . S. Sharp
3/98 STB Reprints Vol 7, pages 148—155
extends a random effects meta-analysis to estimate the extent
to which one or more covariates, with values defined for each
study in the analysis, explain heterogeneity in the treatment
effects
STB-42 sbe22 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Cumulative meta analysis
(help metacum if installed) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . J. Sterne
3/94 STB Reprints Vol 7, pages 143—147
performs cumulative meta-analysis, using fixed or random-effects
models, and, optionally, graphs the results
STB-42 sbe16.1 . . . . . New syntax and output for the meta-analysis command
(help meta if installed) . . . . . . . . . . . S. Sharp and J. Sterne
3/98 STB Reprints Vol 7, pages 106—108
STB-41 sbe20 . Assessing heterogeneity in meta-analysis: the Galbraith plot
(help galbr if installed) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A. Tobias
1/98 STB Reprints Vol 7, pages 133—136
performs the Galbraith plot (1988) which is useful for
investigating heterogeneity in meta-analysis
STB-41 sbe19 . . . . . . . . . . Tests for publication bias in meta-analysis
(help metabias if installed) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . T. Steichen
1/98 STB Reprints Vol 7, pages 125—133
performs the Begg and Mezumdar (1994) adjusted rank correlation
test for publication bias and performs the Egger et al. (1997)
regression asymmetry test for publication bias
STB-38 sbe16 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Meta-analysis
(help meta if installed) . . . . . . . . . . . S. Sharp and J. Sterne
7/97 STB Reprints Vol 7, pages 100—106
meta analysis for an outcome of two exposure groups or two
treatment regimens
The list you see when you type search meta analysis will be up-to-date if you have installed the latest official updates.
If a listed entry begins with the letters STB, then it was published in the STB. For instance, the last listed item—sbe16—can be found in STB-38 and also in STB Reprints volume 7.
If a listed entry says “help XXX if installed”, then there is software associated with that entry. All of the above listed entries have software associated with them, but that is not always the case:
. search quantile regression
[R] qreg . . . . . . . . . . . . . Quantile (including median) regression
(help qreg)
STB-13 sg11.2 . . . . . . Calculation of quantile regression standard errors
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . W. H. Rogers
5/93 STB Reprints Vol 3, pages 77—78
more detailed description of the Koenker and
Bassett method for calculating qreg standard
errors
STB-9 sg11 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Quantile regression standard errors
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . W. H. Rogers
9/92 STB Reprints Vol 2, pages 133—137
argument presented that the formula-based Koenker and
Bassett standard errors used by qreg are not satisfactory
when heteroscedasticity of the residuals is suspected and
suggests the substitution of bootstrap standard errors
None of the above STB inserts have software associated with them.
In any case, in our previous request, search suggested STB insert sbe16 of STB-38 and said “help meta if installed”. In all probability, meta is not installed:
. help meta
help for meta not found
try help contents or search meta
If you wished to install insert sbe16 of STB-38 from inside Stata, you could use the [R] net command:
. net from http://www.stata.com
. net cd stb
. net cd stb38
. net describe sbe16
. net install sbe16
or you could
See [U] 28.4 Downloading and managing additions by users , [U] 28.4.1 Installing software from STB, and [U] 28 Using the Internet to keep up to date.
There are other sites around the world equivalent to www.stata.com; they may provide faster download times given your location. The mirror sites, however, may lag the www.stata.com site by a week or so.
To go to a mirror site, either
or type
. net from http://www.stata.com
. net cd stb
. net link mirror_site_name
The STB software is also available from other Internet sources in a downloadable format. This will interest you if your Stata is not connected to the Internet, but you have access to the Internet through a browser on that or another computer.
Do not seek other Internet sources simply in hopes of finding a faster connection. The easiest way to install the STB software is to obtain the software from www.stata.com using Stata's built-in Internet capabilities; see above.
The following site maintains the STB software in an alternate format:
Carnegie Mellon University, USA
This site provides one ZIP file per STB, but the installation from the zip files is complicated because the zip files contain different things:
The STB has been in continuous publication since May 1991. The editors are
Appropriate submissions include articles on new Stata commands (ado-files), programming tutorials, illustrations of data-analysis techniques, reports on other programs, announcements, questions, and suggestions.
Very active Stata programmers, especially those who exchange ado-files with others, worry about choosing unique names for their commands.
Say you write a new command called reghpb, and somebody else on the other side of the world also writes a new command of that name. Mostly when that occurs it does not matter because the two new commands never meet on the same computer. If both programmers make their commands available to others, however, someone could want both. If both commands have the same name, that will not be possible.
Thus use the following rules to name user-submitted ado-files:
Generally, really nice names should be reserved for really nice commands that are used by a large fraction of the Stata community.
This thinking is coupled with the argument that any command that fits the above definition is or will become part of Stata as it is distributed by StataCorp.
Programmers other than StataCorp programmers can write really nice commands, but such commands get really nice names only after being published in the STB or otherwise distributed under not-so-nice names and then being adopted for inclusion into Stata, at which point they will be renamed. At that point, such programmers will also get a really nice reference in the manual.
There is nothing wrong with giving your programs names shorter than 4 characters, but you may not submit such programs to the STB. Such names are reserved for private use and, on rare occasion, for really common commands (think of d for describe).
Submissions to the STB are usually made as a group of files that are submitted on media or via email.
Mailed submissions are to be mailed to
STB Editor
StataCorp LP
4905 Lakeway Drive
College Station, TX 77845
USA
Emailed submissions are to be sent to [email protected].
The easy way to submit an insert to the STB is first to create a single “archive file” (zip file or a compressed tar file) containing all the files associated with the submission. Then email the archive file to the editor by sending it as an attachment.
For Unix users, we recommend
% tar -cf - . | compress | uuencode anyname.tar.Z > ../mysub.tomail
% mail [email protected] < ../mysub.tomail
A submission should include
By submitting to the STB, you are indicating your agreement to the following copyright statement, which is printed in each issue of the STB: Submissions to the STB, including submissions to the supporting files (programs, datasets, and help files), are on a nonexclusive, free-user basis. In particular, the author grants to StataCorp the nonexclusive right to copyright and distribute the material in accordance with the Copyright Statement below. The author also grants to StataCorp the right to freely use the ideas, including communication of the ideas to other parties, even if the material is never published in the STB. Submissions should be addressed to the Editor. Submission guidelines can be obtained from either the editor or StataCorp.
Copyright Statement. The Stata Technical Bulletin (STB) and the contents of the supporting files (programs, datasets, and help files) are copyright (c) by StataCorp LP. The contents of the supporting files (programs, datasets, and help files), may be copied or reproduced by any means whatsoever, in whole or in part, as long as any copy or reproduction includes attribution to both (1) the author and (2) the STB.
The insertions appearing in the STB may be copied or reproduced as printed copies, in whole or in part, as long as any copy or reproduction includes attribution to both (1) the author and (2) the STB. Written permission must be obtained from StataCorp if you wish to make electronic copies of the insertions.
Users of any of the software, ideas, data, or other materials published in the STB or the supporting files understand that such use is made without warranty of any kind, either by the STB, the author, or StataCorp. In particular, there is no warranty of fitness of purpose or merchantability, nor for special, incidental, or consequential damages such as loss of profits. The purpose of the STB is to promote free communication among Stata users.
The Stata Technical Bulletin (ISSN 1097-8879) is a publication of Stata Press, and Stata is a registered trademark of StataCorp LP.
(last revised 26 June 2001)
