Statistical methods for dealing with publication bias in meta‐analysis
- 3 November 2014
- journal article
- tutorial in-biostatistics
- Published by Wiley in Statistics in Medicine
- Vol. 34 (2), 343-360
- https://doi.org/10.1002/sim.6342
Abstract
Publication bias is an inevitable problem in the systematic review and meta-analysis. It is also one of the main threats to the validity of meta-analysis. Although several statistical methods have been developed to detect and adjust for the publication bias since the beginning of 1980s, some of them are not well known and are not being used properly in both the statistical and clinical literature. In this paper, we provided a critical and extensive discussion on the methods for dealing with publication bias, including statistical principles, implementation, and software, as well as the advantages and limitations of these methods. We illustrated a practical application of these methods in a meta-analysis of continuous support for women during childbirth. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.Keywords
Funding Information
- U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (HSR&D RCS 05-196)
This publication has 65 references indexed in Scilit:
- Assessment of regression-based methods to adjust for publication bias through a comprehensive simulation studyBMC Medical Research Methodology, 2009
- Performance of the trim and fill method in the presence of publication bias and between‐study heterogeneityStatistics in Medicine, 2007
- Arcsine test for publication bias in meta‐analyses with binary outcomesStatistics in Medicine, 2007
- Comparison of Two Methods to Detect Publication Bias in Meta-analysisJama-Journal Of The American Medical Association, 2006
- A modified test for small‐study effects in meta‐analyses of controlled trials with binary endpointsStatistics in Medicine, 2005
- Adjusting for publication bias in the presence of heterogeneityStatistics in Medicine, 2003
- Inflation of type I error rate in two statistical tests for the detection of publication bias in meta‐analyses with binary outcomesStatistics in Medicine, 2002
- A Nonparametric “Trim and Fill” Method of Accounting for Publication Bias in Meta-AnalysisJournal of the American Statistical Association, 2000
- The file drawer problem and tolerance for null results.Psychological Bulletin, 1979