Some Methods for Addressing Publication Bias in Statistical Meta-analysis

Abstract

In statistical meta-analysis, publication bias may bias the overall conclusion toward a significant
result. We examine two approaches for accounting for this bias: the fail safe sample size, for which we
provide a correction, and selection models, for which we explore a simplification. In a new approach
which combines both of these methods, we use a variation on one type of selection model in order to
make better assumptions about the unobserved studies in the fail safe sample size.