Neither fixed nor random: weighted least squares meta-analysis

• Published in: Statistics in medicine Vol. 34; no. 13; pp. 2116 - 2127
• Main Authors: Stanley, T. D., Doucouliagos, Hristos
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Blackwell Publishing Ltd 15.06.2015; Wiley Subscription Services, Inc
• Subjects: Bias; Computer Simulation; Confidence Intervals; Estimating techniques; fixed effect; Humans; Least-Squares Analysis; Markov Chains; Meta-analysis; Meta-Analysis as Topic; meta-regression; Publication Bias; random effects; Regression analysis; Simulation; Statistical methods; weighted least squares; random effects; fixed effect; meta-analysis; weighted least squares; meta-regression

This study challenges two core conventional meta‐analysis methods: fixed effect and random effects. We show how and explain why an unrestricted weighted least squares estimator is superior to conventional random‐effects meta‐analysis when there is publication (or small‐sample) bias and better than a...