The trace plot is seldom used in meta-analysis, yet it is a very informative plot. In this article, we define and illustrate what the trace plot is, and discuss why it is important. The Bayesian version of the plot combines the posterior density of [tau], the between-study standard deviation, and the shrunken estimates of the study effects as a…

Network meta-analysis (NMA) is an established method for assessing the comparative efficacy and safety of competing interventions. It is often the case that we deal with interventions that consist of multiple, possibly interacting, components. Examples of interventions' components include characteristics of the intervention, mode (face-to-face,…

Network meta-analysis (NMA) incorporates all available evidence into a general statistical framework for comparing multiple treatments. Standard NMAs make three major assumptions, namely homogeneity, similarity, and consistency, and violating these assumptions threatens an NMA's validity. In this article, we suggest a graphical approach to…

Heterogeneity is commonplace in meta-analysis. When heterogeneity is found, researchers often aim to identify predictors that account for at least part of such heterogeneity by using mixed-effects meta-regression models. Another potentially relevant goal is to focus on the amount of heterogeneity as a function of one or more predictors, but this…

Introduction: Interrupted Time Series (ITS) studies may be used to assess the impact of an interruption, such as an intervention or exposure. The data from such studies are particularly amenable to visual display and, when clearly depicted, can readily show the short- and long-term impact of an interruption. Further, well-constructed graphs allow…

Meta-analysis results are usually presented in forest plots, which show the individual study results and the summary effect along with their confidence intervals. In this paper, we propose a system of linear springs as a mechanical analogue of meta-analysis that enables visualization and enhances intuition. The length of a spring corresponds to a…

Background: Individual patient data meta-analyses (IPD-MA) are regarded as the gold standard for systematic reviews, which also applies to systematic reviews of diagnostic test accuracy (DTA) studies. An increasing number of DTA systematic reviews with IPD-MA have been published in recent years, but there is much variation in how these IPD-MA were…

The Systematic Review Toolbox aims provide a web-based catalogue of tools that support various tasks within the systematic review and wider evidence synthesis process. Identifying publications surrounding specific systematic review tools is currently challenging, leading to a high screening burden for few eligible records. We aimed to develop a…

It is often challenging to present the available evidence in a timely and comprehensible manner. We aimed to visualize the evolution of evidence about antidepressants for depression by conducting cumulative network meta-analyses (NMAs) and to examine whether it could have helped the selection of optimal drugs. We built a Shiny web application that…

Effect direction (evidence to indicate improvement, deterioration, or no change in an outcome) can be used as a standardized metric which enables the synthesis of diverse effect measures in systematic reviews. The effect direction (ED) plot was developed to support the synthesis and visualization of effect direction data. Methods for the ED plot…

Network meta-analysis (NMA) can be used to compare multiple competing treatments for the same disease. In practice, usually a range of outcomes is of interest. As the number of outcomes increases, summarizing results from multiple NMAs becomes a nontrivial task, especially for larger networks. Moreover, NMAs provide results in terms of relative…

Traditional visualization in meta-analysis uses forest plots to illustrate the combined treatment effect, along with the respective results from primary trials. While the purpose of visualization is clear in the pairwise setting, additional treatments broaden the focus and extend the results to be illustrated in network meta-analysis. The…

Evidence-based decision-making is predicated on the ability of users to find and comprehend results from systematic review. Evidence producers have an obligation to support evidence users in this process. The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) Evidence-based Practice Center (EPC) program--a producer of rigorous and comprehensive…