Investigating And Addressing Publication And Other Biases In Meta-Analysis
INTRODUCTION Studies that indicate a substantial impact of therapy are more likely than other studies to be published, published in English, referenced by other authors, and published numerous times. As a result, such papers are more likely to be found and included in systematic reviews, introducing bias. Another primary source of bias is the low methodological quality of research included in a systematic review. Small studies are more susceptible to all of these biases than large studies. The more significant the treatment impact required for the results to be necessary, the smaller the research. Bias in a systematic review may be detected by looking for a correlation between the size of the treatment effect and the size of the study; such correlations can be analysed visually and quantitatively. Graphical methods for detecting bias i) Funnel plots Funnel plots were initially utilised in educational and psychological studies. They’re scattered plots of treatment effects calculated fro...