Correction for bias in meta-analysis of little-replicated studies.

ABSTRACT: Meta-analyses conventionally weight study estimates on the inverse of their error variance, in order to maximize precision. Unbiased variability in the estimates of these study-level error variances increases with the inverse of study-level replication. Here, we demonstrate how this variability accumulates asymmetrically across studies in precision-weighted meta-analysis, to cause undervaluation of the meta-level effect size or its error variance (the meta-effect and meta-variance).Small samples, typical of the ecological literature, induce big sampling errors in variance estimation, which substantially bias precision-weighted meta-analysis. Simulations revealed that biases differed little between random- and fixed-effects tests. Meta-estimation of a one-sample mean from 20 studies, with s

SUBMITTER: Doncaster CP 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5993351 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature