The file-drawer problem revisited: a general weighted method for calculating fail-safe numbers in meta-analysis.
Quantitative literature reviews such as meta-analysis are becoming common in evolutionary biology but may be strongly affected by publication biases. Using fail-safe numbers is a quick way to estimate whether publication bias is likely to be a problem for a specific study. However, previously suggested fail-safe calculations are unweighted and are not based on the framework in which most meta-analyses are performed. A general, weighted fail-safe calculation, grounded in the meta-analysis framework, applicable to both fixed- and random-effects models, is proposed. Recent meta-analyses published in Evolution are used for illustration.
Rosenberg
Michael S
MS
Center for Evolutionary Functional Genomics, Biodesign Institute, and School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona 85287-4501, USA. msr@asu.edu
D015201:Meta-Analysis as Topic; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D017594:Publication Bias; D012107:Research Design; D013223:Statistics as Topic / Q000379:methods