Background: Meta‐regression has grown in popularity in recent years, paralleling the
increasing numbers of systematic reviews and meta‐analysis published in the biomedical …

In meta-analysis, when the difference in results between studies is greater than would be
expected by chance, one needs to investigate whether the observed variation in results …

Background Many meta-analyses contain only a small number of studies, which makes it
difficult to estimate the extent of between-study heterogeneity. Bayesian meta-analysis …

The art and science of meta‐analysis, the combination of results from multiple independent
studies, is now more than a century old. In the last 30 years, however, as the need for …

Meta‐regression has become a commonly used tool for investigating whether study
characteristics may explain heterogeneity of results among studies in a systematic review …

Background Due to clinical and methodological diversity, clinical studies included in meta-
analyses often differ in ways that lead to differences in treatment effects across studies. Meta …

Meta-analysis is the application of statistics to combine results from multiple studies and
draw appropriate inferences. Its use and importance have exploded over the last 25 years …

Statistical tests of heterogeneity and bias, in particular publication bias, are very popular in
meta‐analyses. These tests use statistical approaches whose limitations are often not …

Evidence-based research is used to generate, summarise, and understand the best
available practices to inform decision-making. Systematic reviews (SR) and meta-analysis …

In this article, we counter some criticism regarding the desirability of performing meta-
analysis in clinical research. These criticisms, we argue, are based mainly on current …