Funnel plots for detecting bias in meta-analysis: guidelines on choice of axis.

By J. Sterne, Matthias Egger. Journal of Clinical Epidemiology, 2001

3,542 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Subfields: Statistics and Probability, Surgery

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/5217331c3fa95c6082038290b6c2017ed7925598

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Statistics and Probability

In Surgery

Citations in the corpus

Self-Compassion and Coping: a Meta-Analysis (2021, methodology): “…ways: (1) inspection of funnel plots (i.e., a scatter plot of the effect sizes relative to their corresponding sample size, Light and Pillemer 1984; Sterne and Egger 2001) and, if publication bias was indicated, (2) via rank correlation test (Begg and Mazumdar 1994) and Egger’s regression test…”
Preventing 30-day hospital readmissions: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized trials (2014, neutral): “Involved ≥5 meaningful patient interactions (13)c 0.”
The prevalence of posttraumatic stress disorder in Operation Enduring Freedom/Operation Iraqi Freedom (OEF/OIF) Veterans: a meta-analysis. (2015, methodology): “Possible publication bias was investigated graphically using funnel plot (Sterne & Egger, 2001) and empirically using a regression test (Egger, Smith, Schneider, & Minde, 1997) or rank test (Begg & Mazumdar, 1994).”
Simulation-Based Learning in Higher Education: A Meta-Analysis (2020, methodology): “We have a relatively small sample of empirical studies and apply a range of techniques to identify possible biases (Egger’s test, trim and fill) and improve the generalizability of the results (Sterne & Egger, 2001).”
Predicting the Big 5 personality traits from digital footprints on social media: A meta-analysis (2018, neutral): “Existence of publication bias was investigated by in-specting funnel plot, and by using Begg and Mazumdar rank correlation test (Begg & Mazumdar, 1994), Egger's intercept test (Sterne & Egger, 2001), Duval and Tweedie's trim and ﬁ ll procedure (Duval & Tweedie, 2000), and classic fail-safe N .”
Conducting Meta-Analyses in R with the metafor Package (2010, background): “In particular, if studies with small and/or non-signiﬁcant ﬁndings remain unpublished (and therefore are less likely to be included in a meta-analysis), then this may result in an asymmetric funnel plot (Light and Pillemer 1984; Sterne and Egger 2001; Rothstein et al. 2005).”
Contour-enhanced meta-analysis funnel plots help distinguish publication bias from other causes of asymmetry. (2008, methodology): “The 95% CIs are used to indicate the extent of betweenstudy heterogeneity in addition to assessing funnel asymmetry [24] and are determined by the studies in the meta-analysis and the pooled estimate.”
Glycemic index, glycemic load, and chronic disease risk--a meta-analysis of observational studies. (2008, methodology): “To assess the potential for publication bias, we constructed funnel plots for each outcome in which the log RR was plotted against their SE (43).”
Hyperuricemia and Coronary Heart Disease: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis (2010, methodology): “To assess the potential for publication bias, we performed the Begg test and the Egger test and constructed funnel plots to visualize possible asymmetry (29).”
Much Ado About Something: Violent Video Game Effects and a School of Red Herring: Reply to Ferguson and Kilburn (2010) (2010, result): “Sterne and Egger (2001) noted that it is possible that studies with smaller samples actually do have larger effects, perhaps because the smaller studies used different populations or designs than did the larger ones.”