NEWS.md
In meta: General Package for Meta-Analysis

In R function metamerge(), user can decide whether to keep or ignore information from second meta-analysis on study weights and heterogeneity statistics
New function metaadd() to add pooled results from external analysis to meta-analysis object
Function update.meta() considers arguments 'method.mean' and 'method.sd'
Variables with group specific information can be merged into a single variable in longarm()
Additional thresholds can be specified to plot vertical lines in forest plots, e.g., to mark large, moderate and small effects
Baujat plot can be used to evaluate influence of studies on random effects estimate
Seed can be specified in meta-analysis functions to calculate reproducible bootstrap prediction intervals

metamerge():
new arguments 'common1', 'random1', 'prediction1', 'common2', 'random2', 'prediction2' to specify whether to keep common effect results, random effects results or prediction interval from first or second meta-analysis
new arguments 'keep', 'keep.Q', 'keep.I2' and 'keep.w' to determine whether additional information from second meta-analysis should be kept
new arguments 'common', 'random', 'prediction', 'overall' and 'overall.hetstat' to specify which results to print
new arguments 'hetlabel1', 'hetlabel2', 'text.common1', 'text.common2', 'text.random1', 'text.random2', 'text.predict1' and 'text.predict2' to label results from first or second meta-analysis
longarm():
new arguments 'id1' and 'id2' to specify last character(s) of variable names with group specific information

metabias():
do not conduct test for funnel plot asymmetry for three-level model (the test did not consider the cluster structure)
forest.meta():
header line was concealed by equivalence region
error if argument 'resid.hetstat = TRUE' was used for subgroup meta-analysis without common between-study variance estimate in subgroups (argument 'tau.common = FALSE' in meta-analysis functions)
read.rm5():
fix bug for error message "In gsub("\x80", "EUR", txt) : unable to translate '<80>' to a wide string" due to change in default settings in R function gsub()

metabin(), metacont(), metacor(), metacr(), metainc(), metamean(), metaprop(), metarate(), update.meta():
new arguments 'seed.predict' and 'seed.predict.subgroup'
print an error message if bootstrap prediction interval is requested for three-level model
trimfill.default():
new argument 'seed.predict'
baujat.meta():
new argument 'pooled'
forest.meta():
arguments 'lower.equi' and 'upper.equi' can be numeric vectors
new arguments 'fill.lower.equi' and 'fill.upper.equi' to specify fill colour(s) for lower or upper limits

full rewrite of function catmeth() to print details on meta-analysis methods

forest.meta():
correct order of cluster variable for three-level meta-analysis with subgroups or use of argument 'sortvar'
metabin(), metacont(), metacor(), metainc(), metamean(), metaprop(), metarate():
recognise argument 'subset' for three-level meta-analysis
Ad hoc variance correction for Hartung-Knapp method was not used for argument 'adhoc.hakn = "IQWiG6"' (bug was introduced in meta, version 6.0-0)

metacr():
new argument 'Q.Cochrane'
metareg():
using the regression formula as first unnamed argument will result in an error not a warning

metagen(): check argument 'sm' for known summary measures in lower case
setchar(): new arguments 'return.NULL' and 'nchar.equal'
New branch 'release' on GitHub starting with meta, version 6.2-1

New function trimfill.rm5() to conduct trim-and-fill method for all or selected meta-analyses of a Cochrane review

nnt.meta(), print.nnt.meta():
NNTs for hazard ratios can be calculated following Altman & Andersen (1999)
print sensible confidence interval for NNTs if treatment effect is non-significant (Altman, 1998)

Use generic functions for cumulative meta-analysis (metacum), leave-one-out meta-analysis (metainf) and meta-regression (metareg)
New internal function chksuitable() to check for suitable classes

Meta-analysis of Vaccine Efficacy or Vaccine Effectiveness implemented
For the generic inverse variance method,
untransformed values can be provided for treatment estimates and confidence limits, see argument 'transf'
original confidence limits for individual studies kept if arguments 'lower' and 'upper' are not missing
standard error set to missing if lower and upper confidence limits are identical (resulted in an error)
Methods by McGrath et., (2020) and Cai et., (2021) implemented to approximate means and standard deviations from median and related statistics
R package estmeansd added to suggested packages to provided methods by McGrath et., (2020) and Cai et., (2021)
Print header line in forest plots with JAMA or RevMan5 layout

forest.meta():
no error for subgroup meta-analysis conducted with metarate() using argument 'n' to specify the sample size
same square sizes for a meta-analysis with or without subgroups
no error for Revman5 and JAMA layout in meta-analyses with more than one random effects method
metarate():
calculate number of observations in subgroups if argument 'n' is provided
metabind(), forest.metabind():
use correct study / method labels if no subgroup results are present
settings.meta():
argument name 'addrows.below.overall' not 'addrow.below.overall'
metagen():
calculate correct prediction interval limits for three-level models
number of studies in meta-analysis equal to number of non-missing estimates and standard errors (only number of non-missing standard errors was considered)

All meta-analysis functions:
print prediction interval(s) if argument 'method.predict' is not missing
metabin, metagen(), metainc():
argument 'sm = "VE"' can be used for meta-analysis of vaccine efficacy or vaccine effectiveness
metagen(), settings.meta():
new argument 'transf'
forest.meta():
new argument 'header.line' to add header line
new argument 'digits.TE' to specify number of digits for transformed treatment estimates (list element 'TE')
use more informative column labels for 'TE' and 'seTE'
metabin(), metainc(), metaprop() and metarate():
for GLMMs, stop with error if argument 'adhoc.hakn.ci' or 'adhoc.hakn.pi' is unequal to ""
nnt.meta(), nnt.default():
new argument 'small.values' to specify whether small treatment effects indicate a beneficial or harmful effect
settings.meta():
new argument 'digits.TE.forest' to set default for argument 'digits.TE' in forest.meta()
Print blank space before negative upper confidence interval limit if separator is equal to "-"
New help page meta-sm summarising available summary measures
Help page of nnt() updated
Change maintainer's email address

New internal functions transf(), cor2z(), p2asin(), logVR2VE() and VE2logVR()
chknumeric():
new argument 'integer' to check for integer values
List element 'df.Q.b.random' with degrees of freedom for test of subgroup differences under random effects model is a list instead of a vector if more than one random effects method was used (argument 'method.random.ci')
Several changes for meta-analysis using generalised linear mixed or three-level models

Meta-analysis object can contain results of several common effect or random effects methods, e.g., random effects meta-analysis with or without Hartung-Knapp method
Kenward-Roger method implemented to estimate confidence or prediction interval (Partlett & Riley, 2017)
Bootstrap approach implemented to calculate prediction interval (Nagashima et al., 2019)
Rewrite of function metamerge() to merge pooled results of two meta-analyses into a single meta-analysis object
Defaults for appearance of forest plots can be defined for the R session
R package pimeta added to suggested packages in order to calculate bootstrap approach for prediction interval
New argument 'method.random.ci' replaces argument 'hakn' to select method to calculate confidence interval for random effects estimate
Major update of help pages:
help page for meta-package revised (content of details of meta-analysis functions moved to this help page)
new help page meta-object describing content of meta-analysis functions (content moved from individual help pages)

forest.meta():
do not print label for subgroups with no information to print, e.g., if argument 'study.results = FALSE', for subgroups with only one or no study contributing to pooled estimate in the subgroup
do not show empty row before label on x-axis (argument 'xlab') if argument 'label.left' or 'label.right' is provided for meta-analysis without reference value (argument 'ref'), e.g., meta-analysis of single means or proportions
metareg():
use Paule-Mandel estimator if used in meta-analysis (instead of REML estimator)

metabin(), metacont(), metacor(), metagen(), metainc(), metamean(), metaprop() and metarate():
argument 'hakn' replaced by 'method.random.ci'
argument 'adhoc.hakn' replaced by 'adhoc.hakn.ci'
new arguments 'method.predict' and 'adhoc.hakn.pi'
settings.meta():
several new arguments added to define defaults for forest plots; see printout of command settings.meta(print = TRUE)
forest.meta():
argument 'col.by' has been renamed to 'col.subgroup',
argument 'bysort' has been renamed to 'sort.subgroup'
trimfill.meta():
arguments 'level', 'level.ma', 'method.random.ci', 'adhoc.hakn', 'method.tau', 'method.tau.ci', 'level.predict', and 'method.predict' removed

Use term 'common effect model' instead of 'fixed effect model' in the documentation and argument 'common' instead of 'fixed' to (not) show results for common effect model
Three-level model implemented in all meta-analysis functions
For continuity corrections, new argument 'method.incr' replaces arguments 'allincr' and 'addincr' for meta-analysis with binary outcome or incidence rates
Exact Poisson confidence limits can be calculated for individual studies in meta-analysis of single rates
Show information on statistical significance and between-study heterogeneity in forest plots of cumulative or leave-one-out meta-analysis
Calculate Cochran's Q directly in meta for classic inverse variance meta-analysis (instead of taking it from metafor package)
By default, do not print warnings for deprecated arguments; this can be changed with command 'settings.meta(warn.deprecated = TRUE)'

Use correct standard error for Cox and Snell's method in smd2or() and or2smd()
Three-level model did not work if variable from data set was provided as input to argument 'id' in metacont()
Argument 'tau.common = TRUE' was ignored in subgroup analysis of three-level model in metacont()
Argument 'level' was ignored in the calculation of confidence limits for individual studies in metacont() and metamean() if argument 'method.ci = "t"'
Show correct studies in forest plot with subgroups and missing treatment effects if argument 'allstudies = FALSE'
Show points in bubble plot of meta-regression with GLMM

For three-level models,
argument 'id' has been renamed to 'cluster',
cluster variable is shown in forest plots.
New arguments 'common' and 'cluster' in functions metabin(), metacont(), metacor(), metagen(), metainc(), metamean(), metaprop() and metarate()
New function subset.longarm() to select subset of a longarm object
New argument 'method.ci' in function metarate()
New argument 'method.ci.rate' in function settings.meta()
New argument 'method.incr' in functions metabin(), metainc(), metaprop() and metarate()
print.summary.meta():
for a single study and metabin() with method = "MH", sm = "RR" and RR.Cochrane = FALSE, print results using a continuity correction for sample sizes of 1x incr (individual study) and 2x incr (meta-analysis of single study)

forest.meta():
use meta:::formatN() instead of format() for formatting
print study label "1" instead of "" for a single study
metarate():
list elements 'lower' and 'upper' contain untransformed confidence limits for individual studies
New internal function update_needed() to check whether update of meta object is needed
metabin(), metacont(), metacor(), metagen(), metainc(), metamean(), metaprop() and metarate():
new list element 'k.TE' with number of estimable effects

Forest plot for meta-analysis with subgroups:
more flexible printing of subgroup results
by default, do not show subgroup results (pooled estimates and information on heterogeneity) for subgroups consisting of a single study
Prediction intervals in subgroups can be shown independently of prediction interval for overall meta-analysis in printouts and forest plots
Bubble plot shows relative treatment effects on original scale instead of log scale and reference line is shown
Trim and fill, limit meta-analysis and Copas selection model objects can be used in function metabind()
New function longarm() to transform data from pairwise comparisons to long arm-based format
New auxiliary function labels.meta() to create study labels for forest plots in JAMA or Lancet layout
Printing of spaces in confidence intervals can be suppressed
Help page of forest.meta() updated

Use correct standard error to calculate prediction interval if Hartung-Knapp method was used
In forest plots, show correct degrees of freedom for test of effect in subgroups for Hartung-Knapp method
In update.meta(), consider input for arguments 'pscale', 'irscale' and 'irunit' for meta-analysis objects created with metagen()

forest.meta():
new argument 'subgroup.hetstat'
arguments 'subgroup', 'subgroup.hetstat', 'prediction.subgroup', 'test.effect.subgroup', 'test.effect.subgroup.fixed' and 'test.effect.subgroup.random' can be a logical vector of same length as number of subgroups
arguments 'lab.e', 'lab.c', 'lab.e.attach.to.col' and 'lab.c.attach.to.col' renamed to 'label.e', 'label.c', 'label.e.attach' and 'label.c.attach'
forest.meta(), metabin(), metacont(), metacor(), metacr(), metagen(), metainc(), metamean(), metaprop(), metarate(), print.meta(), update.meta():
new argument 'prediction.subgroup'
metamerge():
first argument can be of class 'limitmeta' or 'copas'
bubble.metareg():
new argument 'backtransf' to (not) back transform relative treatment effects on y-axis
new arguments 'ref', 'col.ref', 'lty.ref' and 'lwd.ref' for reference line
settings.meta():
arguments 'print', 'reset' and 'setting' can be used like any other setting; for example, it is possible to fully reset the settings and switch to the RevMan 5 settings
R commands 'settings.meta("print")' and 'settings.meta()' produce the same printout
new global setting 'prediction.subgroup' for prediction intervals in subgroups
new global settings 'CIlower.blank' and 'CIupper.blank'
cilayout():
new arguments 'lower.blank' and 'upper.blank' to suppress printing of spaces in confidence intervals
additional checks for length of arguments

metagen():
new list elements 'seTE.hakn' and 'seTE.hakn.adhoc' (with standard error for Hartung-Knapp method) and 'seTE.classic' for classic random effects inverse variance method
forest.meta():
new code to assign missing column labels
Internal function formatCI() considers values for 'lower.blank' and 'upper.blank' in cilayout()
New internal function catch() to catch value for an argument

For meta-analysis of single proportions,
export p-value of exact binomial test for individual studies if Clopper-Pearson method (method.ci = "CP") is used to calculate confidence intervals for individual studies
do not export p-value for individual studies if argument 'method.ci' is not equal to "CP" or "NAsm" (normal approximation based on summary measure)

Meta-analysis of continuous outcomes using Hedges' g or Cohen's d as summary measure resulted in inestimable SMDs in individual studies if the total sample size was larger than 343 and argument 'exact.smd' was TRUE (default)
Forest plot creation for meta-analysis of single means with subgroups resulted in an error

New internal function ciClopperPearson() to calculate confidence limits and p-value for exact binomial method
Exported list elements changed for internal functions ciAgrestiCoull(), ciSimpleAsymptotic() and ciWilsonScore()

By default, use exact formulae in estimation of the standardised mean difference (Hedges' g, Cohen's d) and its standard error (White & Thomas, 2005)

Use of metagen() with argument 'id' (three-level model) does not result in an error if all estimates come from a single study

Fix errors due to extended checks of arguments equal to NULL in R package metafor, version 3.1 or above

For backward compatibility, use Q statistic based on Mantel-Haenszel estimate (argument 'Q.Cochrane') by default to calculate DerSimonian-Laird estimator of the between-study variance

For small sample sizes, use correct entry from Table 2 in Wan et. (2014) to approximate standard deviation from median and related statistics

Behaviour of print.meta() and print.summary.meta() switched (to be in line with other print and summary functions in R)
New default settings:
Restricted maximum likelihood (REML) instead of DerSimonian-Laird estimator used as default to estimate between-study heterogeneity (argument 'method.tau')
Do not use Q statistic based on Mantel-Haenszel estimate to calculate DerSimonian-Laird estimator of the between-study variance (argument 'Q.Cochrane')
Print 'Common effect model' instead of 'Fixed effect model'
Default settings of meta, version 4 or lower, can be used with command settings.meta("meta4") - this does not change the new behaviour of print.meta() and print.summary.meta()
Renamed arguments:
'fixed' (instead of 'comb.fixed')
'random' (instead of 'comb.random')
'level.ma' (instead of 'level.comb')
'subgroup' (instead of 'byvar')
'subgroup.name' (instead of 'bylab')
'print.subgroup.name' (instead of 'print.byvar')
'sep.subgroup' (instead of 'byseparator')
'nchar.subgroup' (instead of 'bylab.nchar')

Function gs() can be used to access internal settings
Aggregate internal auxiliary functions in files meta-aux.R to meta-xlab.R

Forest plots of meta-analyses assuming a common between-study heterogeneity variance in subgroups resulted in an error (bug was introduced in meta, version 4.16-0)
For GLMMs, export Wald-type Q statistic for residual heterogeneity instead of missing value

metagen():
set random effects weights equal to zero for estimates with standard errors equal to NA (to fix error bubble.metareg)
metareg():
for three-level model, use 'test = "t"' instead of 'test = "knha"' in internal call of rma.mv()

summary.meta():
print tau2 and tau for subgroups with single study if argument 'tau.common = TRUE'
bubble.metareg():
show regression lines for a single categorical covariate

Subgroup analysis for three-level model fully implemented
New default for forest plots to show results of test for subgroup differences in meta-analyses with subgroups
Calculation of weights for three-level random effects model using weights.rma.mv() with argument type = "rowsum" from R package metafor
Print study label provided by argument 'studlab' for meta-analysis with a single study
Total number of observations and events printed in summaries (if available)

metagen():
treatment estimates for three-level models with subgroups were not based on common between-study variance despite argument tau.common = TRUE
metareg():
use rma.mv() from R package metafor for three-level models instead of rma.uni()

metabin(), metacont(), metacor(), metacr(), metagen(), metagen(), metainc(), metamean(), metaprop(), metarate():
new argument 'test.subgroup' to print results of test for subgroup differences
print.meta():
for three-level models, column with grouping information added to study details
metagen():
default for estimation of between-study variance has changed for three-level models with subgroups, i.e., tau2 is allowed to be different in subgroups by default

metagen():
new variable '.idx' with running index in meta-analysis data set (list element 'data')
new logical list element 'three.level' indicating whether three-level model was used

For argument 'adhoc.hakn = "ci"', directly compare width of confidence intervals of Hartung-Knapp method and classic random effects meta-analysis

Calculate correct upper limit for confidence intervals of I2 and H2 in very homogeneous meta-analyses (i.e., if Q < k - 1)

forest.meta():
correct order of p-values for homogeneity tests within subgroups if argument 'bysort = TRUE'
calcH():
set H = 1 in calculation of confidence interval for H if H < 1 (i.e., if Q < k - 1)
metabias():
bug fix for linear regression tests using metafor, version 2.5-86
metabind():
bug fix for a single meta-analysis object

metabias.bias():
argument '...' passed on to rma.uni()
metagen():
set list element 'df.hakn' to NA instead of NULL if condition met for argument 'adhoc.hakn = "ci"'

Prediction intervals for subgroups implemented

metacont():
use correct variance formula for Glass' delta
metainc():
update command resulted in an error Arguments 'event.e' and 'n.e' must have the same length for meta-analysis with subgroups (due to list elements 'n.e.w' and 'n.c.w' which were interpreted as 'n.e' and 'n.c' containing missing values instead of being NULL)
print.meta():
use of argument 'details = TRUE' resulted in an error in meta-analyses with duplicated study labels
Consider argument 'adhoc.hakn' to calculate confidence intervals in random effects subgroup meta-analyses

print.meta():
column with information on subgroups added to details if argument 'details = TRUE'
forest.meta():
new argument text.predict.w' to label the prediction interval in subgroups
arguments 'text.fixed.w' and 'text.random.w' checked for correct length
Ad hoc variance correction for Hartung-Knapp method not available for GLMMs

metacont():
get rid of warnings 'Unknown or uninitialised column' if argument 'subset' is used
subgroup():
calculate prediction intervals for subgroups

Tests of funnel plot asymmetry:
tests by Macaskill et al. (2001) and Pustejovsky & Rodgers (2019) added
use regtest() from R package metafor internally for linear regression tests
new print layout providing more details
New dataset Pagliaro1992 for meta-analysis on prevention of first bleeding in cirrhosis (Pagliaro et al., 1992)

update.meta():
do not switch to three-level model if method.tau = "ML"

metabias():
use name of first author to select test for funnel plot asymmetry instead of "rank", "linreg", "mm", "count", and "score" (can be abbreviated; old names are still recognised)
print.metabias():
new arguments 'digits.stat', 'digits.se', 'digits.pval', 'scientific.pval', 'big.mark', 'zero.pval', 'JAMA.pval'

linregcore():
complete rewrite using rma.uni() and regtest() from R package metafor

drapery():
use correct limits on y-axis for argument 'type = "zvalue"'

funnel.meta():
inverse of square root of sample size can be plotted on y-axis (argument 'yaxis = "invsqrtsize"')
forest.meta():
consider input for argument 'hetstat' to print heterogeneity statistics for overall results (see argument 'overall.hetstat')
metabin(), metacont(), metacor(), metagen(), metagen(), metainc(), metamean(), metaprop(), metarate():
studies with missing values for subgroup variable (argument 'byvar') can be excluded from meta-analysis using argument 'subset'

funnel.meta():
try to derive sample sizes from list elements 'n.e' or 'n.c' if argument 'yaxis = "size"'

For argument 'adhoc.hakn = "ci"', use correct query to determine whether confidence interval of Hartung-Knapp method is smaller than classic random effects meta-analysis (Hybrid method 2 in Jackson et al., 2017)

Three-level meta-analysis models can be fitted for generic and continuous outcomes (Van den Noortgate et., 2013) by calling rma.mv() from R package metafor internally
Measures I2 and H for residual heterogeneity are based on Q statistic for residual heterogeneity (instead of taken directly from metafor package)
Additional ad hoc method implemented if confidence interval of Hartung-Knapp method is smaller than classic random effects meta-analysis (Hybrid method 2 in Jackson et al., 2017)
For funnel plot of a diagnostic test accuracy meta-analysis, use effective sample size (Deeks et., 2005) by default on the y-axis
New function metamerge() to merge pooled results of two meta-analyses into a single meta-analysis object

metabin():
Mantel-Haenszel method of risk differences did not use continuity correction in case of studies with a zero cell count (argument MH.exact = FALSE)
metabin(), metainc(), metaprop(), metarate():
for GLMMs, confidence limits for classic random effects meta-analysis were calculated instead of confidence limits for Hartung-Knapp if argument 'hakn = TRUE'
metabin(), metainc(), metaprop(), metarate():
works for GLMMs with zero events or number of events equal to number of patients in all studies
forest.meta():
print results for test of subgroup effect in correct order if argument bysort = TRUE
read.rm5():
list elements 'method' and 'sm' had been encoded as a factor instead of character under R-versions below 4.0 which resulted in an error using metacr()

Do not print empty confidence intervals for heterogeneity statistics
metacont(), metagen(), update.meta():
new argument 'id' to specify which estimates belong to the same study (or laboratory) in order to use three-level model
metabind():
argument '...' can be a single list of meta-analysis objects
meta-analyses can use different methods, e.g., different estimators of the between-study variance
All meta-analysis functions:
argument 'adhoc.hakn = "iqwig6"' instead of 'adhoc.hakn = "ci"' uses the ad hoc method for Hartung-Knapp method described in General Methods 6.0 (IQWiG, 2020)
argument 'adhoc.hakn = "ci"' uses the ad hoc method described in Jackson et al. (2017)
forest.meta():
column heading "Mean" instead of "MLN" for meta-analysis object created with metamean() with arguments 'sm = "MLN"' and 'backtransf = TRUE'
study labels specified by argument 'studlab' tried to catch from meta-analysis object
do not print statistic for residual heterogeneity if argument 'tau.common = FALSE' was used to conduct subgroup meta-analysis
metainc():
square root transformed incidence rate difference added as new summary measure (sm = "IRSD")
New arguments 'text.fixed', 'text.random', 'text.predict', 'text.w.fixed' and 'text.w,random' in meta-analysis functions
settings.meta():
new general setting "geneexpr" to print scientific p-values and not calculate confidence interval for between-study heterogeneity variance tau2
argument 'method.tau.ci' can be specified as a global setting
text for fixed effect and random effects model as well as prediction interval can be specified (arguments 'text.fixed', 'text.random', 'text.predict', 'text.w.fixed', 'text.w.randon')
print.meta(), print.summary.meta():
do not print information on continuity correction for exact Mantel-Haenszel method with single study
metareg() can be used in loops to provide argument 'formula'
New auxiliary function JAMAlabels() to create study labels in JAMA layout

Calculate measures of residual heterogeneity in hetcalc()

metacr():
set summary measure to "OR" for Peto odds ratio

Deeks' linear regression test for funnel plot asymmetry of funnel plots of diagnostic test accuracy studies implemented (Deeks et., 2005)
Effective sample size (Deeks et., 2005) can be used on y-axis of funnel plot
Discard infinite estimates and standard errors from calculation of heterogeneity measures
Diagnostic odds ratio (sm = "DOR") added as new effect measure in metabin() and metagen()

forest.meta(), forest.metabind():
arguments 'digits.zval' and 'print.zval' renamed to 'digits.stat' and 'print.stat'
print.summary.meta(), settings.meta():
argument 'digits.zval' renamed to 'digits.stat'
metacr():
do not print a warning for inverse variance meta-analysis with binary outcome
Help page for tests of funnel plot asymmetry updated
Help pages for metabin() and metainc() updated

Median and related statistics can be used in meta-analysis with continuous outcomes to approximate means and standard deviations (Wan et., 2014; Luo et al., 2018; Shi et al., 2020)
RevMan 5 analysis datasets can be imported directly using the RM5-file
R package xml2 added to Imports (RM5-files are in XML-format)
Confidence intervals for individual studies can be based on quantile of t-distribution (only implemented for mean differences and raw untransformed means at the moment)
For the generic inverse variance method,
methods by Luo et al. (2018) implemented to estimate mean from sample size, median and other statistics
method by Shi et al. (2020) implemented to estimate the standard deviation from sample size, median, interquartile range and range

forest.meta():
show all studies with estimable treatment effects if argument 'allstudies' is FALSE
metabind():
works with meta-analysis objects created with metacor()
calculate correct p-value for heterogeneity test if input are subgroup analyses of the same dataset
calculate correct p-value for within-subgroup heterogeneity test if input are subgroup analyses of the same dataset
metacum():
works with Hartung-Knapp method
metagen():
list element 'seTE' contained standard deviation instead of standard error for method by Wan et. (2014) to estimate mean and its standard error from median and other statistics

read.rm5():
direct import of RM5-file possible
new argument 'debug' for debug messages while importing RM5-files directly
metacr():
overall results not shown if this was specified in the Cochrane review (only applies to imported RM5-files)
metagen(), metacont(), metamean():
new argument 'method.mean' to choose method to estimate mean from sample size, median and other statistics
new argument 'method.sd' to choose method to estimate standard deviation from sample size, median, interquartile range and range
new argument 'method.ci' to choose method for confidence intervals of individual studies (only applies to mean differences and raw untransformed means at the moment)
metacont():
new arguments to estimate mean and standard deviation from median and related statistics: 'median.e', 'q1.e', 'q3.e', 'min.e', 'max.e', 'median.c', 'q1.c', 'q3.c', 'min.c', 'max.c', 'method.mean', 'method.sd', 'approx.mean.e', 'approx.mean.c', 'approx.sd.e', 'approx.sd.c'
metamean():
new arguments to estimate mean and standard deviation from median and related statistics: 'median', 'q1', 'q3', 'min', 'max', 'method.mean', 'method.sd', 'approx.mean', 'approx.sd'
forest():
by default, show number of participants in forest plot if this information is available for meta-analysis objects created with metagen()
automatically format p-values for individual studies if added to forest plot using argument 'leftcols' or 'rightcols'
Datasets renamed from Fleiss93, Fleiss93cont and Olkin95 to Fleiss1993bin, Fleiss1993cont and Olkin1995
More sensible variable names in datasets Fleiss1993bin, Fleiss1993cont and Olkin1995

Previous R function read.rm5() for CSV-files renamed to read.rm5.csv()
New auxiliary functions to import RevMan 5 analysis datasets:
extract_outcomes(), oct2txt(), read.rm5.rm5()
ci():
list element 'z' renamed to 'statistic' as calculations can also be based on the t-distribution (list element 'z' is still part of the output for backward compatibility, however, will be removed in a future update)
metagen():
list elements 'zval', 'zval.fixed' and 'zval.random' renamed to 'statistic', 'statistic.fixed' and 'statistic.random' (list elements 'zval', 'zval.fixed' and 'zval.random' are still part of the output for backward compatibility, however, will be removed in a future update)
Internal functions TE.seTE.iqr.range(), TE.seTE.iqr() and TE.seTE.range() renamed to mean.sd.iqr.range(), mean.sd.iqr() and mean.sd.range()
mean.sd.iqr.range():
new arguments 'method.mean' and 'method.sd'
mean.sd.iqr(), mean.sd.range():
new argument 'method.mean'
chkchar(), chkcolor(), chklevel(), chknumeric():
argument 'single' renamed to 'length' (which can be used to test for a specific vector length instead whether it is a single value) (argument 'single' is still available for backward compatibility, however, will be removed in a future update)

Rely on generic functions from R package metafor, e.g., to produce forest or funnel plots (since R version 4.0.0 generic functions from an R package do not consider corresponding functions from another R package which can result in errors if R packages meta and metafor are both loaded)
R function funnel.default() removed from meta (conflicts with metafor)

Sample size method for meta-analysis of binary data with the odds ratio as summary measure implemented (Bakbergenuly et al., 2020)
Ad hoc variance correction for Hartung-Knapp method in the case of very homogeneous study results implemented (Knapp and Hartung, 2003; IQWiG, General Methods: Draft of Version 6.0)
Default settings according to recommendations in General Methods of the Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWIG), Germany
Do not use predict.rma() from metafor package to calculate prediction intervals for generalised linear mixed models

drapery():
study IDs or study labels can be printed at the top of the drapery plot to identify individual studies
more flexible plots, e.g., colours can be specified for individual studies based on p-value of treatment effect
possible value for argument 'type' renamed from "cvalue" to "zvalue" as drapery plots show test statistics, not critical values
funnel.meta(), funnel.default():
argument 'log' is considered for relative summary measures, e.g., odds or risk ratio
metaprop():
can be used with non-integer number of events and sample sizes
metabias.meta(), metabias.default():
third component of list element 'estimate' renamed from "slope" to "intercept" for linear regression tests
settings.meta():
new possible general settings: "iqwig5" and "iqwig6", respectively
Use Markdown for NEWS

New arguments 'overall' and 'overall.hetstat' in meta-analysis functions to control printing of overall meta-analysis results (useful to only show subgroup results)
For GLMMs, use Wald-type Q statistic to calculate I-squared of residual heterogeneity in meta-analysis with subgroups (instead of likelihood-ratio Q statistic)

For GLMMs with subgroups, conduct the correct test for subgroup differences (bug was introduced in meta, version 4.9-7)
summary.meta():
export the correct harmonic mean for fixed effect and random effects model (part of list elements 'fixed' and 'random')
metabind():
do not produce an error if argument 'warn' or 'prediction' is not unique in meta-analyses

forest.meta():
possible to print results for test of an overall effect or subgroup differences even if meta-analysis results are not shown
new defaults for arguments 'overall' and 'overall.hetstat' (which are now considered from meta-analysis objects)
print.summary.meta():
for meta-analysis with subgroups, print information on Q and I^2 with fixed effect results and information on tau and tau^2 with random effects results (previously, information on Q, I^2, tau, and tau^2 was reported twice)

do not calculate confidence limits for tau2 and tau in intermediate calculations of other quantities (i.e., use argument method.tau.ci = "")

New function drapery() to generate a drapery plot (based on p-value curves)

funnel.meta():
print contours in contour-enhanced funnel plots at correct position for relative effect measures (bug was introduced in meta, version 4.9-8)

update.meta():
do not print a warning concerning argument 'Q.Cochrane' if argument sm = "ASD" for meta-analysis objects created with metabin()
print.summary.meta():
do not print z- and p-values if test for an overall effect was not conducted (see argument 'null.effect' in metamean(), metaprop(), and metarate())

forest.meta():
printing an additional column on the right side of the forest plot does not result in an error (bug was introduced in meta, version 4.9-8)

labbe():
new argument 'pos.studlab'
argument checks implemented
baujat(), bubble():
argument 'pos' renamed to 'pos.studlab'
argument checks implemented

Confidence intervals for the between-study variance tau2 and its square root tau are calculated
Print tau as well as confidence intervals for tau2 and tau in outputs
Square root of between-study variance can be printed in forest plots instead of between-study variance tau2; in addition, the confidence interval for tau2 or tau can be printed
Use R package metafor to estimate between-study variance tau2 for DerSimonian-Laird and Paule-Mandel method (which has been already used for all other methods to estimate tau2)
For Mantel-Haenszel (MH) method, report results as MH method (instead of inverse variance, IV) for meta-analysis of binary outcome with a single study (results are identical for MH and IV method in this situation)
Number of studies printed without digits in forest plots for R objects created with metabind()
P-values can be printed according to JAMA reporting standards
In subgroup analyses, print the group labels instead of levels if the grouping variable is a factor
In funnel plot, print funnel around random effects (instead of fixed effect) estimate if only random effects meta-analysis is conducted; only show funnel if either fixed effect or random effects meta-analysis was conducted
New preferred citation of R package meta: Balduzzi et al. (2019)

print.summary.meta(), forest.meta():
new argument 'JAMA.pval' to print p-values according to JAMA reporting standards
print.summary.meta():
new argument 'zero.pval' to remove leading zeros from p-values
print information on estimation of between-study variance even if only results for fixed effect model is shown
print information if Mantel-Haenszel estimate is used to calculate Q and tau2 (implemented similar to RevMan 5)
global setting for 'text.tau2' as defined in settings.meta() is considered in details of meta-analytical method
print.meta():
do not print (missing) weights for GLMMs
update.meta():
by default, do not print warnings (argument 'warn')
add information on variable defining subgroups (argument 'byvar') to meta-analysis dataset
Command 'settings.meta("JAMA")' will change the settings for arguments 'zero.pval' and 'JAMA.pval'
Help page with description of R package updated
Major update of other help pages:
metacont(), metacor(), and metamean()

Function paulemandel() removed as R package metafor is used to estimate the between-study variance
formatPT():
new argument 'JAMA'
List elements 'C' and 'C.w' (scaling factor to estimate common between-study variance) removed from meta-analysis objects
Import confint.rma.uni() from metafor to calculate confidence intervals for tau2 and tau
New internal function pasteCI() to print formatted CIs
New internal function is.wholenumber() to check for whole numbers

Subgroup analysis using argument 'byvar' possible for generalised linear mixed models (GLMMs)

metaprop():
no error if argument 'tau.common' is TRUE for GLMM
metabin(), metainc(), metarate():
consider argument 'control' in subgroup analysis

Major update of help pages:
metabin(), metagen(), metainc(), metaprop(), metarate()

New functions to calculate the number needed to treat from the results of a meta-analysis
Equivalence limits can be added to forest plots
Font family can be specified in forest plots
Print Wald-type test of heterogeneity for generalised linear mixed models (problem fixed in R package metafor, version 2.1-0)

forest.meta():
(always) print correct length for reference line
(always) print label on x-axis at the correct vertical position
(always) print graph labels on the left and right side of the forest plot at the correct vertical position
no error if additional numeric variable is added to the right side of the forest plot (argument 'rightcols')
summary.meta():
consider argument 'bylab'
metaprop():
allow values 0 and 1 for argument 'null.effect'

forest.meta():
new arguments 'lower.equi', 'upper.equi', 'lty.equi', 'col.e' and 'fill.equi' to add equivalence limits
new argument 'fontfamily' to specify the font family
forest.metabind():
information on heterogeneity printed for each meta-analysis

ciAgrestiCoull():
set lower confidence limit to 0 for negative values
set upper confidence limit to 1 for values above 1
subgroup meta-analyses return new list element 'pval.Q.w' (change in internal function subgroup())

For the generic inverse variance method, treatment estimates and standard errors of individual studies can be derived from
p-value or confidence limits
sample size, median, interquartile range and / or range (Wan et al. (2014), BMC Med Res Meth, 14, 135)
New functions for the conversion of effect measures:
smd2or() - from standardised mean difference to log odds ratio
or2smd() - from log odds ratio to standardised mean difference
Harbord test for funnel plot asymmetry implemented for risk ratio as effect measure
Generalised linear mixed model is the new default method for meta-analysis of single proportions using the logit transformation
R packages metafor and lme4 moved from Suggests to Imports
Suppress printing of Wald-type test of heterogeneity for generalised linear mixed models (problem in R function rma.glmm() from R package metafor, version 2.0-0)
Use roxygen2 for development of R package meta

metagen():
new arguments 'pval', 'df', 'lower', 'upper', 'level.ci', 'median', 'q1', 'q3', 'min', 'max', 'approx.TE', 'approx.seTE' to approximate treatment estimates and / or standard errors from other information
forest.meta():
printing of leading zeros in p-values can be suppressed (new argument 'zero.pval')
rounding of values for additional numerical columns possible (new arguments 'digits.addcols', 'digits.addcols.left', and 'digits.addcols.right')
argument 'big.mark' is considered for additional columns
new arguments 'type.subgroup.fixed', 'type.subgroup.random', and 'lab.NA.weight'
settings.meta(), gs():
argument names can be abbreviated
Major update of help pages of metagen() and metaprop()

metacum(), metainf():
consider argument 'method' for meta-analysis objects created with metaprop() or metarate()
forest.meta():
argument 'studlab' can be used with objects created with metacum() or metainf()
subgroup():
return subgroup sample sizes for objects created with metagen()

New internal functions TE.seTE.ci(), TE.seTE.iqr(), TE.seTE.iqr.range(), TE.seTE.range(), and seTE.ci.pval() to approximate treatment estimates and / or standard errors from other information
setchar():
new argument 'stop.at.error'
metagen():
list element 'data' contains the dataset of the meta-analysis object (i.e., list element 'data') instead of the whole meta-analysis object

Information on residual heterogeneity in meta-analyses with subgroups shown in printouts and forest plots

forest.meta():
new arguments 'resid.hetstat' and 'resid.hetlab' to control printing of information on residual heterogeneity in meta-analyses with subgroups

forest.meta():
works in meta-analyses with subgroups if argument 'allstudies' is FALSE

New argument 'control' in meta-analysis functions which is passed on to R function rma.uni() or rma.glmm() from R package metafor to control the iterative process to estimate the between-study variance tau^2

metabin(), metacont(), metacor(), metagen(), metainc(), metamean(), metaprop(), metarate(), update.meta():
new argument 'control' (see major changes)
forest.meta():
new argument 'calcwidth.subgroup'

bubble.metareg():
ignore missing values in covariate to calculate limits on x-axis
works if data set used to create meta-analysis object is a tibble instead of a data frame

metabind():
argument 'tau.common' only considered for subgroup analyses
hetcalc():
argument 'control' passed on to R function rma.uni() from R package metafor
metacum(), metainf(), subgroup():
argument 'control' from meta-analysis objects considered

All p-values of Q statistics are list elements of meta-analysis objects

metareg():
consider argument 'intercept = FALSE' if argument 'formula' has been provided

New internal function replaceNULL()

Subgroup results consider the exclusion of individual studies (bug fix)
For generalised linear mixed models, between-study variance set to NA if only a single study is considered in meta-analysis

metamean():
use of argument 'byvar' for subgroup analyses possible
metacor(), metamean(), metaprop(), metarate():
use as input to metabind() possible
Internal function subgroup():
consider argument 'exclude' in subgroup analyses
Internal function bylevs():
drop unused levels if subgroup variable is a factor variable

print.summary.meta():
print information on Generalised Linear Mixed Model (GLMM) for metarate() objects
print information on increments added to calculate confidence intervals for individual studies (for metarate() with GLMM)
funnel.meta():
new arguments 'ref.triangle', 'lty.ref', 'lwd.ref', 'col.ref', and 'lty.ref.triangle' to add reference value (null effect) and corresponding confidence intervals to the funnel plot
metabin():
new argument 'pscale' to change printout of risk differences
metainc():
new arguments 'irscale' and 'irunit' to change printout of incidence rate differences
forest.meta(), print.meta(), print.summary.meta(), update.meta():
consider arguments 'pscale', 'irscale', and 'irunit' for meta-analysis objects created with metabin() and metainc()
print.meta():
new argument 'irunit'

metaprop():
for random effects model, rma.glmm() from package metafor is called internally with argument 'method = "FE"' if only a single study is available
metareg():
for generalised linear mixed models, fallback to fixed effect model if number of studies is too small for random effects meta-regression
asin2ir():
back-transformation could result in (very small) negative zero values due to imprecisions (-1e-19); these values are set to zero now
subgroup():
code for metamean() added
chkchar():
new argument 'nchar' to test the length of character string(s)
New internal function is.untransformed() to check for effect measures without (back-)transformation

New function metamean() to conduct meta-analysis of single means
New function metabind() to combine meta-analysis objects, e.g. to generate a forest plot with results of several subgroup analyses
Subgroup analysis implemented for generalised linear mixed models (GLMMs) with and without assumption of common between-study variance (arguments 'byvar' and 'tau.common')
Axis direction can be reversed for x-axis in forest plots
Source code version of meta can be installed without compilation, i.e., without use of Rtools on Windows or 'Command-line tools for Xcode' on macOS
Rank test for funnel plot asymmetry uses cor() from R package stats instead of internal C routine (negligibly slower, however, no need for compilation of source installs)
Thousands separator can be used in printouts and forest plots for large numbers
P-values equal to 0 are actually printed as "0" instead of "< 0.0001"

forest.meta(), print.meta(), print.summary.meta():
new argument 'big.mark' to specify character printed as thousands separator, e.g., big.mark = "," will result in printing of 1,000 for the number 1000
forest.meta():
sensible forest plot generated if first value in argument 'xlim' is larger than second value, e.g. xlim = c(10, -10)
separator between label and levels of grouping variable (argument 'byseparator') is considered from meta-analysis object
for relative summary measures, e.g., odds ratio and risk ratio, labels on x-axis are not rounded to two digits (which resulted in the value 0 for a tick-mark at 0.001)
bug fix: lines for treatment effect in fixed effect and random effects model start in center of diamond if argument hetstat = FALSE
bug fix: argument 'type.study' will be sorted according to arguments 'sortvar'
metaprop():
arguments 'byvar' and 'tau.common' can be used for GLMMs
Help page with overview of R functions in R package meta updated

New internal functions:
is.log.effect() to check for treatment effects combined on log scale
is.mean() to check whether summary measure refers to meta-analysis of single means
Renamed internal functions:
formatCI() instead of p.ci()
formatN() instead of format.NA()
formatPT() instead of format.p()
Removed R functions:
format.tau() as functionality is now provided by formatPT()
C program kenscore.c as cor() from R package stats is used instead to calculate Kendall's tau
Deprecated functions: format.NA(), format.p(), p.ci()
Check whether argument 'sm' is NULL in meta-analysis functions
subgroup(): extended for GLMMs
formatPT():
zero p-values are printed as "0" instead of "< 0.001"
NaNs are handled like NAs
bylabel(), catmeth(), formatPT(), formatN(), xlab():
new argument 'big.mark' (see above)

forest.meta():
new arguments 'col.fixed' and 'col.random' to change colour of fixed effect and random effects lines

bubble.metareg():
works if covariate in metareg() is not part of dataset used to generate meta-analysis object
forest.meta():
lines for treatment effect in fixed effect and random effects model always start in center of diamond
metacum(), metainf():
argument 'model.glmm' considered for metabin() and metainc() objects
print.summary.meta():
print transformed null effect for meta-analysis of single correlations, proportions, or rates if argument backtransf is FALSE, i.e., for metacor(), metaprop(), and metarate() objects
trimfill.meta():
argument 'null.effect' is considered to calculate p-value for fixed effect and random effects model for metacor(), metaprop(), and metarate() objects

New internal functions is.cor(), is.prop() and is.rate() to check whether summary measure refers to meta-analysis of correlations, proportions, or rates
metabias.default(), radial.default(), trimfill.default():
call metagen() internally to create meta-analysis object
call metabias.meta(), radial.meta(), or trimfill.meta() internally to conduct analysis

Similar to RevMan 5, individual studies can be excluded from meta-analysis, however, will be shown in printouts and forest plots
In forest plots, line spacing can be determined by the user.

metabin(), metacor(), metacont(), metagen(), metainc(), metaprop(), metarate():
new argument 'exclude' to exclude studies from meta-analysis
forest.meta():
new argument 'spacing' to determine line spacing
bug fix for for meta-analysis with standardized mean difference (sm = "SMD") and argument layout = "RevMan5"
R function ci() can be used with vectors or matrices of treatment estimates and standard errors and a single value for argument 'df', i.e., degrees of freedom (which is used in R package netmeta to calculate prediction intervals for network meta-analysis estimates)
metacum(), metainf():
argument 'null.effect' considered internally for objects generated with metacor(), metagen(), metaprop() and metarate()

baujat.meta(), metabias.meta(), metacum(), metainf(), forest.meta(), funnel.meta(), metareg(), print.meta(), radial.meta(), trimfill.meta(), update.meta():
changes to deal with excluded studies

Calculate confidence interval for I-squared in a meta-analysis with two studies if the heterogeneity statistic Q is larger than 2
P-values can be printed in scientific notation
In forest plots, printing of z-values can be disabled and labels for tests can be changed by user

forest.meta():
new argument 'print.zval' to print (default) or not print z-value for test of treatment effect
new argument 'print.Q.subgroup' to print (default) or not print Chi-squared statistic for test of subgroup differences
bug fix: print first line above second line if argument 'xlab' consists of two lines (bug was introduced in meta, version 4.8-0)
labels of additional columns are printed in correct line if label consists of two lines
new argument 'scientific.pval' to print p-values in scientific notation, e.g., 1.2345e-01 instead of 0.12345
arguments 'label.test.overall.fixed', 'label.test.overall.random', 'label.test.subgroup.fixed', 'label.test.subgroup.random', 'label.test.effect.subgroup.fixed', 'label.test.effect.subgroup.random' work as expected
new argument 'text.subgroup.nohet' to enable the user to change the text "not applicable" in the line with heterogeneity statistics for a subgroup with less than two studies contributing to the meta-analysis
forest plot without any study contributing to meta-analysis can be generated without an error, e.g., meta-analysis with binary outcome, sm="OR", and all event numbers equal to zero
print.meta() and print.summary.meta():
new argument 'scientific.pval' to print p-values in scientific notation, e.g., 1.2345e-01 instead of 0.12345.
new arguments 'print.pval' and 'print.pval.Q' to specify number of significant digits for p-values
R command 'help(meta)' can be used to show brief overview of R package meta
Substantially decrease number of automatically run examples for forest.meta() as CRAN only allows a run time below 10 seconds for examples provided on a help page

new internal function pvalQ() to calculate p-value from heterogeneity tests
calcH():
Calculate confidence interval for H in a meta-analysis with two studies if the heterogeneity statistic Q is larger than 2 (this confidence interval is used in isquared() to calculate a confidence interval for I-squared)
hetcalc():
heterogeneity statistic Q set to 0 for a single study contributing to the meta-analysis (sometimes in this case Q was set to a value below 1e-30)
subgroup():
list element df.Q.b set to 0 if number of studies in meta-analysis is 0
format.p():
new argument 'lab.NA' to change value printed for NAs
forest.meta() and print.summary.meta():
use internal function pvalQ() instead of dedicated R code

metacum(), metainf():
bug fix for meta-analysis objects without continuity correction, i.e., metacont(), metacor(), metagen() (bug was introduced in version 4.8-0 of meta) Error message: "Error in rep_len(x$incr, k.all): cannot replicate NULL to a non-zero length"
bug fix for metarate() objects (improper use of metaprop() internally)

Continuity correction can be specified for each individual study in meta-analysis with proportions or incidence rates

metabin(), metainc(), metaprop(), metarate():
argument 'incr' can be of same length as number of studies in meta-analysis
metaprop():
bug fix in studies with missing information for events or sample size and argument method.ci = "CP"
bug fix such that test for an overall effect is actually calculated
forest.meta():
bug fix such that summary label (argument 'smlab') is printed above forest plot if argument 'fontsize' is unequal to 12
by default, label on x-axis and text on top of forest plot are printed in center of forest plot (arguments 'xlab.pos', 'smlab.pos')
print.summary.meta():
print number of studies for fixed effect meta-analysis using Mantel-Haenszel method if different from number of studies in random effects model (only if summary measure is "RD" or "IRD" and at least one study has zero events)
metainc():
bug fix such that argument 'incr' is considered for incidence rate difference (sm = "IRD")

act on NOTE in 'R CMD check ... --as-cran' with R version, 3.4.0, i.e. register and declare native C routine kenscore
metabin(), metainc():
new list element 'k.MH' with number of studies in meta-analysis using Mantel-Haenszel method
forest.meta():
auxiliary R functions removed from R code
cleaning / shortening of R code
new auxiliary R functions used in forest.meta():
add.label, add.text, add.xlab, draw.axis, draw.ci.square, draw.ci.diamond, draw.ci.predict, draw.forest, draw.lines, formatcol, removeNULL, tg, tgl, twolines, wcalc
hetcalc(), calcH():
set tau^2 as well as H and I^2 to NA if only a single study contributes to meta-analysis (e.g., if other studies in meta-analysis have zero standard error)
updateversion():
use R function update.meta() if version of meta used to create R object is below 3.2

Null hypothesis for test of an overall effect can be specified for metacor(), metagen(), metaprop(), and metarate(); for all other meta-analysis functions implicit a null effect of zero is assumed (for relative effect measures, e.g., odds ratio and hazard ratio, the null effect is defined on the log scale)
User can choose whether to print the following heterogeneity quantities: I^2, H, Rb (by default, heterogeneity measure Rb is not printed and thus revoking a change in meta, 4.7-0)
In forest plots with subgroups, study weights are summed up to 100 percent within each subgroup if no overall estimates are requested, i.e., argument overall is FALSE (like before, by default, weights are not printed if argument overall is FALSE and have to be explicitely requested using argument leftcols or rightcols)

forest.meta():
print line with heterogeneity statistics directly below individual study results if pooled effects are not shown in forest plot (overall = FALSE)
print right and left labels (arguments label.left, label.right) in correct line if arguments overall and addrow are FALSE
bug fix: do not stop with an error if comb.fixed = FALSE, comb.random = FALSE, and overall.hetstat = TRUE
ci(), metacor(), metagen(), metaprop(), metarate():
new argument null.effect to specify null hypothesis for test of an overall effect, e.g., null.effect = 0.5 in metaprop() to test whether the overall proportion is equal to 0.5
metagen():
Hartung-Knapp method only used for at least two studies in meta-analysis
print.meta():
print covariate with subgroup information for each study, if subgroup analysis is conducted (argument byvar)
print.summary.meta():
new arguments print.I2, print.H, print.Rb to specify heterogeneity measures shown in output
new arguments text.tau2, text.I2, text.Rb to change text printed to identify respective heterogeneity measure
only print information on double zero studies if argument allstudies is TRUE
print results for (empty) subgroup in meta-analysis with two studies and one subgroup with missing treatment estimate
settings.meta():
new arguments print.I2, print.H, print.Rb, text.tau2, text.I2, text.Rb to modify printing of heterogeneity measures

summary.meta():
bug fix: list element 'ircale' renamed to 'irscale'
list element 'within' removed which has not been used since meta, version 1.1-4

Forest plots:
forest plots with RevMan 5 and JAMA layout
use of mathematical symbols for I^2, tau^2, etc.
individual study results can be omitted from forest plot (especially useful to only print subgroup results)
labels can be printed at top of forest plot
Measure of between-study heterogeneity added:
R_b (Crippa et al. (2016))
Default settings of meta-analysis methods specified via gs() instead of extracting elements of list .settings (which makes output of args() easier to read, e.g., args(metabin))
Version of suggested R package metafor must be at least 1.9-9 (due to change in arguments of rma.uni() and rma.glmm())

forest.meta():
argument layout:
- new layouts: "JAMA" to produce forest plots with JAMA style
- RevMan 5 layout extended
arguments can be specified without using grid::unit(): plotwidth, colgap, colgap.left, colgap.right, colgap.studlab, colgap.forest, colgap.forest.left, colgap.forest.right
new argument study.results to print (default) or omit individual study results from forest plot
new argument bottom.lr to change position of labels on left and right side of forest plot
new arguments col.label.right and col.label.left to change colour of labels on left and right side of forest plot
argument weight renamed to weight.study and new argument weight.subgroup added to specify whether plotted subgroup results should be of same or different size
new arguments print.Rb, print.Rb.ci, Rb.text for heterogeneity measure Rb
new arguments to control printing: digits.cor, digits.mean, digits.sd, digits.time, digits.zval
new argument print.subgroup.labels to print (default) or omit rows with subgroup label from forest plot
new argument type.subgroup to change plotting of subgroup results
argument addspace renamed to addrow
new argument addrow.subgroups to add a blank line between subgroup results
new argument addrow.overall to add a blank before meta-analysis results
new argument blanks to enhance printing of test statistics, heterogeneity measurs, and p-values
new argument colgap.studlab to specify space between column with study labels and subsequent column
new arguments to change width of column with study labels (these arguments are especially useful if only study labels are printed on left side of forest plot):
- calcwidth.fixed (consider text for fixed effect model)
- calcwidth.random (consider text for random effects model)
- calcwidth.hetstat (consider text for heterogeneity measures)
- calcwidth.tests (consider text for tests of effect or subgroup differences)
new column "effect.ci" with estimated treatment effect and confidence interval in one column
unnecessary arguments removed: text.I2, text.tau2
metabin(), metacont(), metacor(), metacr(), metacum(), metagen(), metainc(), metainf(), metaprop(), metarate(), trimfill.default(), trimfill.meta():
new measure of between-study heterogeneity implemented (list elements Rb, lower.Rb, upper.Rb)
summary.meta():
new measure of between-study heterogeneity added (list element Rb.w)
print.meta(), print.summary.meta():
print heterogeneity measure Rb
metabias.meta(), metabias.default():
checks for arguments implemented
New function gs() to get default settings
forest.meta(), metabin(), metacont(), metacor(), metacr(), metagen(), metainc(), metaprop(), metarate(), print.meta(), print.summary.meta():
use gs() to define defaults for arguments in meta-analysis functions, e.g. gs("hakn") instead of .settings$hakn
metareg():
stop with an error if version of metafor package is below 1.9-9
metabin(), metainc(), metaprop(), metarate():
for GLMMs, stop with an error if version of metafor package is below 1.9-9
metabin():
bug fix, do not stop with an error if no double zero events are present in a dataset with at least one study with NA event counts
metareg():
bug fix, use of covariate 'x' does not result in an error
settings.meta():
general settings for RevMan 5 and JAMA implemented
function can be used to change the layout of confidence intervals using arguments CIbracket and CIseparator (these arguments can also be set using cilayout())
Several help pages updated, especially
forest.meta(), settings.meta(), meta-package

metabin(), metainc(), metaprop(), metarate(), metareg():
use argument test instead of knha and tdist for calls of rma.uni() and rma.glmm(); change in R package metafor, version 1.9-9
subgroup():
new measure Rb of between-study heterogeneity implemented
is.installed.package():
new check of version number of R package
use requireNamespace() instead of installed.packages()
format.p():
for small p-values, print "p < 0.01" or "p < 0.001" instead of "p < 0.0001" if digits.pval is 2 or 3, respectively
new argument zero to print ".001" instead of "0.001", etc
meta-internal():
set defaults for new arguments: smrate, layout

New function metarate() to conduct meta-analysis of single incidence rates
Peters' test for funnel plot asymmetry implemented for meta-analysis of single proportions
Meta-analysis of ratio of means added to metacont()
Justification of additional columns in forest plot can be specified individually for each additional column
Justification of additional columns in forest plot can be specified individually for each additional column
Calculation of Freeman-Tukey double arcsin transformation and backtransformation slightly changed in meta-analysis of single proportions
By default, do not print a warning if backtransformation for metaprop() and metarate() objects results in values below 0 or above 1 (only for proportions); note, respective values are set to 0 or 1

Help page with brief overview of meta package added
Preferred citation of meta package in publications changed; see output of command 'citation("meta")'
forest.meta(), metagen(), print.meta(), print.summary.meta(), summary.meta(), trimfill.default(), trimfill.meta(), update.meta():
new arguments irscale and irunit for meta-analysis objects created with metarate()
settings.meta():
new arguments smrate for meta-analysis objects created with metarate()
funnel.meta(), funnel.default():
new argument pos.studlab to change position of study labels
forest.meta():
new arguments just.addcols.left and just.addcols.right to specify justification of additional columns on left and right side of forest plot
metacont():
meta-analysis for ratio of means implemented (argument sm = "ROM")
new argument backtransf (if argument sm = "ROM")
metaprop():
change in Freeman-Tukey double arcsin transformation only visible in printouts if argument backtransf = FALSE or if list elements TE, TE.fixed, and TE.random (as well as confidence intervals) are extracted from a metaprop object
print.summary.meta():
print correct results for subgroup analyses of metaprop objects with sm = "PFT" (bugfix in internal subgroup() function)
print.meta(), print.summary.meta():
new argument warn.backtransf to specify whether a warning should be printed if backtransformed proportions and rates are below 0 and backtransformed proportions are above 1
Help pages updated:
forest.meta(), metabias.meta(), metabin(), metacont(), metacor(), metagen(), metainc(), metainf(), metaprop(), print.meta(), print.summary.meta(), summary.meta(), trimfill.default(), trimfill.meta(), update.meta()

New function asin2ir() to backtransform arcsine transformed incidence rates
backtransf(), catmeth(), metacum(), metainf(), subgroup(), xlab():
extension to handle meta-analysis objects created with metarate()
metaprop(), asin2p():
calculation of Freeman-Tukey double arcsin transformation changed such that sm = "PFT" and sm = "PAS" result in similar estimates (TE, TE.fixed, TE.random), i.e. values are multiplied by 0.5 for sm = "PFT"
subgroup():
bux fix in calculation of harmonic mean of sample sizes (for metaprop objects with sm = "PFT") and event times (for metarate objects with sm = "IRFT")

New features in forest plots:
printing of columns on left side of forest plot can be omitted
total person time can be printed
text for fixed effect and random effects model can be omitted from calculation of width for study labels
plot type for confidence intervals (square or diamond) can be specified for each study as well as fixed effect and random effects estimate
printing of test for treatment effect in subgroups possible
New function weights.meta() to calculate absolute and percentage weights in meta-analysis
New argument byseparator to define the separator between label and subgroup levels which is printed in meta-analysis summaries and forest plots - considered in all R functions dealing with meta-analysis and subgroups
Argument pscale - a scaling factor for printing of single event probabilities - considered in all R functions for single proportions; before this update, the pscale argument was only available in forest.meta()

forest.meta():
argument ref considered for metaprop objects
argument leftcols = FALSE omits printing of columns on left side of forest plot
new argument pooled.times to print total person time
new argument calcwidth.pooled to include or exclude text from pooled estimates to determine width of study labels
the following arguments have been renamed (old arguments can still be used at the moment, however, will result in an informative warning message): . col.i -> col.study . col.i.inside.square -> col.inside . col.diamond.fixed.lines -> col.diamond.lines.fixed . col.diamond.random.lines -> col.diamond.lines.random
new arguments: . type.study, type.fixed, type.random (use squares or diamonds to plot treatment effects and confidence intervals) . col.inside.fixed, col.inside.random (colour to print confidence interval inside square) . test.effect.subgroup, test.effect.subgroup.fixed, test.effect.subgroup.random, label.test.effect.subgroup.fixed, label.test.effect.subgroup.random, fs.test.effect.subgroup, ff.test.effect.subgroup (print results for test of treatment effect in subgroups)
bug fix: reference line and lines for fixed effect and random effects estimate were too short if test.overall is TRUE
bug fix: arguments lab.e.attach.to.col and lab.c.attach.to.col were ignored for R objects created with metagen()
metabin(), metacont(), metacor(), metagen(), metainc(), metaprop(), forest.meta(), print.summary.meta(), summary.meta(), update.meta(), settings.meta():
new argument byseparator
metagen(), metaprop(), print.meta(), print.summary.meta(), summary.meta(), trimfill.meta(), trimfill.default(), update.meta():
- new argument pscale
labbe.metabin(), labbe.default():
transformed event probabilites can be plotted, e.g., log odds event probabilities for odds ratio as summary measure (see argument backtransf)
line for null effect added by default (see arguments nulleffect, lwd.nulleffect, col.nulleffect)
metabin(), metainc(), metaprop():
use predict.rma() from metafor package to calculate prediction interval for GLMM method
print note for GLMM method that continuity correction is only used to calculate individual study results
Help pages updated: labbe.metabin(), labbe.default(), forest.meta(), metabin(), metacont(), metacor(), metagen(), metainc(), metaprop(), print.meta(), print.summary.meta(), summary.meta(), trimfill.meta(), trimfill.default(), update.meta()

New function bylabel() to print subgroup labels
update.meta():
- do not consider columns 'n.e' and 'n.c' as sample sizes for metagen or metainc object if not used in original call of metagen() or metainc()
catmeth(), xlab():
- new argument pscale
catmeth():
- for GLMM, print information that continuity correction is only used to calculate individual study results
metacum(), metainf():
list object pscale added
metabin():
list objects incr.e and incr.c contains zeros for Peto method
print warning that no continuity correction is used for Peto method if any of the following arguments is used: incr, allincr, addincr, allstudies
metacr():
keep dataset used to conduct meta-analysis in list object data
paulemandel():
bug fix such that function does not result in an error if used with a single study
settings.meta():
bug fix such that use of argument method.tau works as expected

metareg(), update.meta():
bug fix such that use of these functions with metaprop objects using argument method = "GLMM" does not result in an error

Generalised linear mixed models (GLMMs) implemented by internal call of rma.glmm() from R package metafor by Wolfgang Viechtbauer
R packages lme4, numDeriv, and BiasedUrn added to suggested packages which are required by rma.glmm()
Print layout (especially number of printed digits) slightly modified which impacts output from print.meta(), print.summary.meta(), and forest.meta()
New arguments to change number of digits in printouts and forest plots

metabin(), metainc(), metaprop():
extension for meta-analysis based on GLMM; see method argument and model.glmm argument (not used in metaprop function)
new argument ... to provide additional arguments to rma.glmm()
some arguments can be used for other meta-analysis methods than inverse variance method: method.tau, hakn, tau.common(), TE.tau(), tau.preset() () not considered for GLMMs
metabin():
do not print warning that inverse variance instead of Mantel-Haenszel method is used for analysis of a single study
print warning if continuity correction (arguments incr, allincr, addincr, allstudies) is used with arcsine difference, Peto method, or GLMM
check whether R package BiasedUrn is installed for conditional hypergeometric-normal GLMM (method = "GLMM", model.glmm = "CM.EL")
forest.meta():
extension to plot meta-analysis based on GLMM
labels argument can be used instead of label argument to change labels on x-axis (axis() uses labels argument)
funnel.meta():
print default labels on y-axis with capital first letter
metareg() and update.meta():
extension for meta-analysis based on GLMM
print.meta():
new arguments to control printing: digits.se, digits.zval, digits.Q, digits.tau2, digits.H, digits.I2, digits.prop, digits.weight
argument ... passed on to internal call of print.summary.meta()
print.summary.meta():
new arguments to control printing: digits.zval, digits.Q, digits.tau2, digits.H, digits.I2
print "--" for missing z-value instead of "NA"
only print confidence interval for H and I2 if lower and upper limits are not NA
print Wald-type and Likelihood-Ratio heterogeneity test for GLMMs
settings.meta():
new arguments: model.glmm, digits, digits.se, digits.zval, digits.Q, digits.tau2, digits.H, digits.I2, digits.prop, digits.weight, digits.pval, digits.pval.Q
check whether R package metafor is installed for specific values of argument method.tau
check whether R packages required for GLMMs are available (if method = "GLMM"): metafor, lme4, numDeriv
Help pages updated: metabin(), metainc(), metaprop(), metareg(), forest(), print.meta(), print.summary.meta(), settings.meta(), update.meta()

New function:
format.NA() to print other text than "NA" for missing values
metagen():
only call paulemandel() if heterogeneity statistic Q is larger equal than number of studies minus 1 (otherwise between-study heterogeneity tau-squared is set equal to 0)
New list elements:
model.glmm, .glmm.fixed, .glmm.random, version.metafor in metabin(), metainc(), metaprop()
doublezeros in metabin() - only for odds ratio and risk ratio
allstudies, doublezeros, model.glmm, .glmm.fixed, .glmm.random, version.metafor in summary.meta()
meta-internal():
set defaults for new arguments: model.glmm, digits, digits.se, digits.zval, digits.Q, digits.tau2, digits.H, digits.I2, digits.prop, digits.weight, digits.pval, and digits.pval.Q
paulemandel():
more sensible warning if maximum number of iterations is reached
maximum number of iterations increased from 25 to 100
format.p():
print trailing zeros
catmeth():
print information for GLMMs
print information whether studies with double zeros are included in meta-analysis
is.installed.package():
new arguments for more flexible error and warning messages: func, argument, value, chksettings

Function metacont:
bug fix such that correct treatment estimates for individual studies are calculated for Glass's delta (i.e. arguments sm = "SMD" and method.smd = "Glass")
Function metaprop:
print correct error message if number of events is larger than number of observations

Function forest.meta:
new arguments 'digits.se', 'digits.tau2', 'digits.pval', 'digits.pval.Q', 'digits.Q', 'digits.I2' to control printing of standard errors, p-values, tau-squared and heterogeneity statistics
new arguments 'test.overall' and 'test.subgroup' controlling whether information on test for overall effect and heterogeneity should be printed
Internal function paulemandel:
bug fix such that studies with missing treatment effect and standard error get zero weight in random effects meta-analysis
do not stop estimation algorithm if estimated tau-squared is negative
Function settings.meta:
bug fix such that no error occurs if function is used with an unassigned argument
Internal functions format.p and format.tau:
new argument 'digits' to round p-values and tau-squared values
Internal functions chkchar, chkclass, chklength, chklevel, chklogical, chkmiss, chknull, chknumeric, setchar:
new argument 'name' to change name of checked argument in printout
Help page of R function forest.meta updated

Functions metabin, metainc, and metaprop:
missing values are allowed in numbers of events or patients (studies with missing values get zero weight in meta-analysis)
Function forest.meta:
print information on test for overall effect (see arguments 'test.overall.fixed' and 'test.overall.random')
print information on test for subgroup differences in meta-analysis with subgroups (see arguments 'test.subgroup.fixed' and 'test.subgroup.random')
new argument 'layout' to change the layout of the forest plot
argument 'lab.NA' considered for all columns in forest plot (e.g. numbers of events and patients for metabin objects)
new argument 'lab.NA.effect' to label NAs in individual treatment estimates and confidence intervals
bug fix such that no error occurs if random effects estimate is missing
Function metareg:
additional arguments implemented (hakn, level.comb, intercept)
argument '...' is no longer ignored but passed on to R function rma.uni (e.g., to control the iterative estimation process)
bug fix such that a fixed effect meta-regression can be conducted (argument method.tau="FE")
Function metabin:
use Inverse Variance instead of Mantel-Haenszel method if only a single study has a non-missing treatment estimate or standard error
Functions settings.meta and meta-internal:
code added for new arguments in forest.meta function to print information on tests
Help pages:
help page of R functions metareg and forest.meta updated
link to RevMan webpage updated

Copyright changed (new names for Institute and Medical Center)
Function metacont:
new argument 'exact.smd' to implement exact formulae for Hedges' g and Cohen's d (White and Thomas (2005; Hedges, 1981)
use formula from Borenstein et al. (2009) to calculate standard error for Cohen's d
Function forest.meta:
bug fix such that additional columns used in arguments leftcols and rightcols are sorted appropriately if argument sortvar is not missing
prediction interval can be printed if random effects estimate is not shown
new argument print.I2.ci to print confidence intervals for I-squared
Function print.meta and print.summary.meta:
prediction interval can be printed if random effects estimate is not shown
Functions settings.meta, meta-internal, catmeth and update.meta:
code added for new argument 'exact.smd' in metacont function
Functions ci and kentau:
calculate p-values without floating point number representation problems, e.g. the command ci(9, 1) does not result in a p-value of 0 but 2.257177e-19
Several help pages updated
reflect changes in metacont function
updated RevMan 5 reference

Title of R package changed
Function metacont:
new argument 'method.smd' to implement Cohen's d (method.smd="Cohen") and Glass' delta (method.smd="Glass") as additional effect measures for the standardised mean difference (sm="SMD")
new argument 'sd.glass' to choose the denominator for Glass' delta
Function update.meta:
new arguments 'method.smd' and 'sd.glass' added
Function summary.meta:
information for new arguments 'method.smd' and 'sd.glass' added to summary.meta object
Functions settings.meta and meta-internal:
code added for new arguments 'method.smd' and 'sd.glass' in metacont function
Function forest.meta:
bug fix such that using this function with a metaprop object and subgroups will not result in staggered point estimates
Function metagen:
bug fix such that studies with missing treatment effect (argument TE) but available standard error (argument seTE) get zero weight in meta-analysis
Function paulemandel (used internally):
only consider studies without missing treatment effect (argument TE) and standard error (argument seTE) in calculation of between-study variance tau-squared
Function chklevel (used internally):
print meaningful error message if confidence limit is outside the range (0, 1)
Function catmeth (used internally):
print information on method to estimate the standardised mean difference used in metacont function
Help pages of metacont and update.meta functions updated

Function metabin:
bug fix such that printing an R object created using the Mantel-Haenszel and Peto method does not result in an error if any study has zero events in both groups

Function metabin:
bug fix such that use of Peto method does not result in an error
argument 'sm="ASD"' for arcsine difference instead of 'sm="AS"' (abbreviations 'sm="AS"' and 'sm="A"' can be used as well)
Functions metabin, metacont, metacor, metagen, metainc, and metaprop:
Weights w.random.w are calculated from random effects meta-analysis ignoring subgroup membership (internally used function subgroup changed accordingly)
for subgroup analysis, argument 'tau.common' is set to TRUE if argument tau.preset is not NULL

Function forest.meta:
bug fix such that function can be used with subgroups and additional columns (arguments leftcols and rightcols)

This update has been declared as major revision as R code to conduct subgroup analyses has been moved from R functions summary.meta and forest.meta to R functions metabin, metacont, metacor, metagen, metainc, and metaprop. Accordingly, an R object generated with these functions contains all results from subgroup analyses (see corresponding help pages).

In the case of subgroups, the overall treatment effect in fixed effect and random effects meta-analysis ignores subgroup membership. See Borenstein et al. (2011), Introduction to Meta-Analysis, Wiley, Chapter 19, "Obtaining an overall effect in the presence of subgroups, Option 3.

Furthermore, several checks of function arguments have been implented in version 4.0-0 of meta.

Function addvar has been removed from R package meta (remaining functionality provided by forest.meta function)
Function forest.meta:
new meaning for argument 'just' which determines the justification of all columns but study labels (argument 'just.studlab') and columns added to the forest plot (argument 'just.addcols')
new argument 'just.addcols' to change justification of text in additional columns
new arguments 'text.I2' and 'text.tau2'
for metaprop objects, values "n" and "event" handled as standard columns in argument 'rightcols' and 'leftcols', i.e. justification is determined by argument 'just.cols'
subgroup results printed with the same polygon height as overall results, i.e. percentage weight is not considered to determine polygon height for subgroups
Function bubble.metareg:
bug fix such that bubble plot is generated for meta-regression objects without intercept
bug fix such that use of function does not result in an error for some effect measures, e.g. sm="RR", "OR", or "HR"
New R functions (used internally):
subgroup, hetcalc
updateversion
bylevs, byvarname
chkchar, chkclass, chklength, chklevel, chklogical, chkmetafor chkmiss, chknull, chknumeric
int2num, npn
setchar, setstudlab
Functions format.p, format.tau, catmeth, and print.summary.meta:
consider settings for option 'OutDec' (character used as decimal point in output conversions), e.g. options(OutDec=",") will print "1,0" instead of "1.0"
Functions print.summary.meta:
remove code for R objects created with version 2.0-0 or lower of meta
print 'p-value' instead of 'p.value'
Functions print.meta:
print 'p-value' instead of 'p.value'
Several help pages updated.

Functions forest.meta, funnel.default, funnel.meta, metabin, metacor, metacr, metagen, metainc, metaprop, print.meta, print.summary.meta, summary.meta, trimfill.default, trimfill.meta:
new argument 'backtransf' indicating whether effect measures should be back transformed
Functions print.meta, print.summary.meta:
argument 'logscale' removed (replaced by argument 'backtransf')
Functions print.summary.meta, forest.meta:
print prediction interval for Freeman-Tukey double arcsin transformation (sm="PFT", see help page on metaprop command)
Function forest.meta:
consider prediction interval to calculate limits on x-axis (if argument 'prediction=TRUE')
Function bubble.metareg:
new argument 'regline' indicating whether regression line should be added to plot
Function settings.meta:
new argument 'print=TRUE' to print listing of all settings (function call without arguments does not print all settings any longer)
a list with previous settings can be provided (see help page)
New functions (used internally):
backtransf (for back transformation of effect measures)
is.relative.effect (check for relative effect measures)
File DESCRIPTION:
R package grid defined as Imports instead of Depends
Help pages
updated to reflect changes in version 3.8-0

Function forest.meta:
bug fix such that lower and upper confidence interval limits will be sorted correctly if argument 'sortvar' is used (this bug has been introduced in version 3.7-0 of meta)
argument 'sortvar' works without reference to meta-analysis object, e.g. command forest(meta1, sortvar=TE) can be used instead of forest(meta1, sortvar=m1$TE) - see help page for examples.
Help page of forest.meta function:
examples using argument 'sortvar' added

Function metaprop:
new argument 'method.ci' to implement various methods to calculate confidence intervals for individual studies (default: Clopper-Pearson method which is also called 'exact' binomial method)
list elements zval.fixed, pval.fixed, zval.random, pval.random set to NA
New functions:
ciWilsonScore (used internally in metaprop function)
ciAgrestiCoull (used internally in metaprop function)
ciSimpleAsymptotic (used internally in metaprop function)
estimate.missing (used internally in trimfill.default and trimfill.meta; so far function was defined in both trimfill functions)
Function metacont:
new argument 'pooledvar' to conduct meta-analysis of mean differences (sm="MD") based on pooled variance for individual studies
Function update.meta:
function can be used to upgrade R objects created with older versions of meta, i.e. all versions between 0.5 and 3.6-0
extended to objects of the following classes:
trimfill (fully functional)
metacum (only upgrade to current version of meta)
metainf (only upgrade to current version of meta)
new arguments:
method.ci (for metaprop objects)
pooledvar (for metacont objects)
left (for trimfill objects)
ma.fixed (for trimfill objects)
type (for trimfill objects)
n.iter.max (for trimfill objects)
new list element 'call.object', i.e call used to generate object used as input to update.meta function
Function as.data.frame.meta, baujat.meta, forest.meta, funnel.meta, labbe.metabin, metacum, metainf, print.meta, summary.meta, trimfill.meta:
call update.meta function for meta-analysis objects created with older meta packages (version < 3.7)
Functions metabin, metacont, metacor, metagen, metainc, metaprop, trimfill.default, trimfill.meta:
new list elements: lower, upper, zval, pval (i.e. calculate confidence limits as well as z- and p-values for individual studies)
Function print.meta and print.summary.meta:
print information on method used for confidence intervals of individual studies for metaprop objects
Functions metacum and metainf:
add calculations for metainc objects
new list element 'call' with function call
consider argument 'pooledvar' for metacont objects
Functions metabin, metacont, metacor, metagen, metainc, metaprop:
study labels will only be converted to characters for factor variables
Help pages
updated to reflect changes in version 3.7-0
argument tau.preset correctly described as the square-root of the between-study variance

New functions:
baujat and baujat.meta (Baujat plot to explore heterogeneity in meta-analysis)
bubble and bubble.metareg (bubble plot to display the result of a meta-regression)
Function metareg:
class 'metareg' added
new list element .meta which is a list with information on meta-analysis object used in function call
Function update.meta:
argument 'studlab' fully functional (I missed this argument in version 3.2-0)
Function print.meta:
print study label for a single study in meta-analysis if argument 'details=TRUE' (internally function data.frame instead of cbind used)
New function is.installed.package (used internally)
replacement for function is.installed.metafor
Help pages datasets amlodipine and cisapride:
execute examples for Hartung-Knapp method
Help pages merged for the following commands:
forest and forest.meta
funnel and funnel.meta
labbe and labbe.metabin
metabias and metabias.meta
trimfill and trimfill.meta

Function metabin:
Inverse variance method used instead of Mantel-Haenszel method if argument 'tau.common' is TRUE
Function metareg:
tilde sign not necessary in argument 'formula' to make this function more user friendly
Function forest.meta:
print common tau-squared for subgroups if argument tau.common is TRUE in meta-analysis object
Function metagen:
arguments 'n.e' and 'n.c' can be part of the dataset provided in argument 'data'
DerSimonian-Laird method used instead of Paule-Mandel method if argument 'tau.common' is TRUE
Functions metacor, metainc, and metaprop:
arguments title, complab, and outclab part of R object
Some help pages (slightly) updated.

New R function settings.meta to define and print default settings for meta-analyses in R package meta
Function metagen:
Hartung and Knapp method added (previously the rma.uni function from R package metafor has been called for this method)
Paule-Mandel method to estimate between-study variance implemented using new internal function paulemandel which is based on R function mpaule.default from R package metRology from S.L.R. Ellison (Author of R function mpaule.default is S. Cowen with amendments by S.L.R. Ellison)
Function metacont:
studies with missing treatment estimate get zero weight in meta-analysis
Functions metabin, metacont, metacor, metacr, metagen, metainc, metaprop:
default values changed according to R function settings.meta
Function metareg:
use argument method.tau = "REML" if this argument is equal to "PM" for meta-analysis object
Several help pages updated.

Function forest.meta:
bug fix such that correct confidence limits for individual studies will be printed if argument 'level' in function metabin etc. is not equal to the default 0.95. (this bug has been introduced in version 3.0-0 of meta)

Functions metabin, metacont, metacor, metagen, metainc, metaprop:
heterogeneity statistics I-squared and H added to R object
column names changed in list object data (columns starting with a "." are used internally in update.meta function)
internally, string "byvar" is used as default label for grouping variable if argument bylab is not provided.
Function metareg:
internally variable .byvar used instead of byvar to reflect change in list object data (see above)
Function update.meta:
arguments 'byvar' and 'subset' fully functional
internally variables .TE (etc) used instead of TE (etc) to reflect change in list object data (see above)
Functions trimfill.default and trimfill.meta:
heterogeneity statistics I-squared and H added to R object
Function metagen:
bug fix such that weights (w.fixed, w.random) are calculated correctly if any standard error is missing or zero for Hartung-Knapp method (argument hakn=TRUE) or not using the DerSimonian Laird method (argument method.tau not equal to "DL")
Function summary.meta:
implement subgroup analysis for metainc objects
only (re)calculate heterogeneity statistics (Q, tau-squared, I-squared) for R objects generated with older versions of R package meta
Function forest.meta:
groups will not be sorted automatically in alphabetical order (new argument 'bysort'). Use argument bysort=FALSE, in order to get the old behaviour of forest.meta function.
only (re)calculate heterogeneity statistics (Q, tau-squared, I-squared) for R objects generated with older versions of R package meta
Function catmeth (used internally)
new argument 'tau.preset' to print information if between-study variance was pre-specified
Function print.meta and print.summary.meta
argument 'tau.preset' used in call to function catmeth
New internally used functions isquared and calcH
Some help pages updated

Function forest.meta:
bug fix such that forest plot with subgroups will not result in an error for any meta-analysis object besides metaprop objects (this bug has been introduced in version 3.1-1 of meta)

Function forest.meta:
bug fix such that random effects estimate will be printed for subgroups for metaprop objects using summary measure "PFT"

New R function metainc (meta-analysis of incidence rates)
Continuity correction:
R functions metabin and metaprop do no longer print a warning in case of studies with a zero cell frequency
instead information on continuity correction is given under "Details on meta-analytical method" if a corresponding meta-analysis object is printed
Functions forest.meta, funnel.default, funnel.meta, print.meta, print.summary.meta, update.meta, catmeth, xlab:
modified to properly handle R objects of class "metainc"
Function metaprop:
use correct variable names for 'event' and 'n' in list object data if R function metaprop is called without argument data
Function metabin:
inverse variance method (argument sm="Inverse") is used automatically if argument tau.common is TRUE
bug fix such that call of R function metabin will not result in an error if argument tau.common is TRUE and method is equal to "MH" (Mantel-Haenszel method)
Function catmeth (used internally in R function print.summmary.meta):
print information on continuity correction for objects of class metabin, metaprop, and metainc
Function summary.meta:
modified such that fixed effect and random effects estimates and confidence intervals are only (re)calculated for very old versions of R package meta (version number < 2.x-x) if argument level.comb has not been used
Functions trimfill.meta and trimfill.default:
new list components lower.fixed, upper.fixed, zval.fixed, pval.fixed, lower.random, upper.random, zval.random, pval.random added to trimfill R object (should/could have been part of exported list since meta, version 2.0-0)
New datasets smoking and lungcancer (example datasets for R function metainc)

This update has been declared as major revision as the user interface has been changed by dropping arguments for the following functions: - print.meta (arguments level, level.comb, level.prediction removed) - summary.meta (byvar, level, level.comb, level.prediction) - metainf (level.comb) - metacum (level.comb) - forest.meta (byvar, level, level.comb, level.predict) This functionality is now provided by R function update.meta - see help page of R function update.meta for further details.

New function update.meta
update an existing meta-analysis object which was created with R function metabin, metacont, metagen, metaprop, or metacor
New function cilayout
change layout to print confidence intervals (in printout from R functions print.meta, print.summary.meta, and forest.meta)
Deprecated function plot.meta removed
Functions metabin, metacont, metagen, metaprop, metacor:
code cleaning (in preparation for R function update.meta)
new list components:
data (original data(set) used in function call)
subset (information on subset of original data used in meta-analysis)
Function summary.meta:
new list components:
data (original data(set) used in function call)
subset (information on subset of original data used in meta-analysis)
Functions metareg:
argument 'data' renamed to 'x'
first two arguments interchanged (which is now in line with other R functions from R package meta)
modified such that information on grouping variable (list element 'byvar') is utilised if argument 'formula' is missing
any column from original dataset (list component 'data' in metabin object (etc) can be used in meta-regression
Function trimfill.meta:
new defaults for arguments 'comb.fixed' and 'comb.random' (by default only random effects estimate calculated)
arguments 'sm' and 'studlab' removed (values have been overwritten internally anyway)
new list components (depending on class of meta-analysis object used in function call):
- event.e, event.c, event (number of events)
- n.e, n.c, n (number of observations)
- mean.e, mean.c, sd.e, sd.c (Mean and standard deviation)
- cor (correlation)
- class.x (class of meta object used in function call)
Function trimfill.default:
new default for argument comb.fixed (by default only random effects estimate calculated)
Function metacr:
new list components for Peto O-E method:
event.e, n.e, event.c, n.c
Function metaprop:
new list component incr.event
Function forest.meta:
bug fix such that call of forest.meta function will not result in an error in the following setting: (i) effect measure is equal to RR, OR, or HR and (ii) argument label is not a logical value.
Function print.summary.meta:
modified such that "0" instead of "< 0.0001" is printed if between-study heterogeneity tau-squared is equal to 0
New function format.tau (used internally):
print "0" instead of "< 0.0001" if tau-squared is zero
Function p.ci (used internally):
new arguments bracket.left, separator, bracket.right for more flexible layouts to print confidence intervals (see also R function cilayout)
Several help pages updated.

Function forest.meta:
new argument just.studlab to change justification of study labels
Function print.meta:
print correct information on method to calculate approximate confidence interval for 'metaprop' objects with a single study
Function trimfill.meta:
new list components title, complab, outclab, label.e, label.c, label.left, label.right which are utilised in other R functions to enhance printout (see information on version 2.0-0 of R package meta)

Function metacr:
new arguments prediction and level.predict (prediction interval for a new study)
new argument tau.common (common tau-squared across subgroups)
new arguments level and level.comb (confidence interval for single study / meta-analysis)
Functions trimfill.meta and trimfill.default:
new arguments prediction and level.predict (prediction interval for a new study)
Function forest.meta:
modified such that heterogeneity statistics are only printed in forest plot if results for fixed effect and/or random effects model are plotted (new defaults for arguments print.I2, print.tau2, and print.pval.Q)
Functions metagen, metabin, metacont, metaprop, metacor:
modified such that list components comb.fixed, comb.random, and prediction are set to FALSE for a single study (no meta-analysis for a single study)
Functions print.meta, print.summary.meta:
new argument logscale which can be used to print results for summary measures 'RR', 'OR', 'HR', or 'PLN' on logarithmic scale
Several help pages updated

Function metaprop:
bug fix such that call of forest.meta function with metaprop object does not result in an error (bug was introduced in version 2.4-0 of meta)
new list components incr, allincr, addincr added to metaprop R object (should have been part of exported list since meta, version 1.5-0)
Function print.meta:
new arguments prediction and level.predict to print prediction interval for a new study
Function print.summary.meta:
call of internal function asin2p using argument warn to only print warnings if result for fixed effect, random effects model or prediction interval are printed
Function forest.meta:
call of internal function asin2p using argument warn to only print warnings if result for fixed effect, random effects model or prediction interval are plotted
Function asin2p (used internally for metaprop objects):
new argument warn to only print a warning in certain situations (see comments on functions print.meta and forest.meta)
Help pages metabin, metacont, metacor, metacr, metagen, metaprop:
example to generate forest plot added

Functions metagen, metabin, metacont, metaprop, metacor:
new arguments prediction and level.predict (prediction interval for a new study)
new argument tau.common (common tau-squared across subgroups)
help pages updated accordingly
Function metaprop:
new default summary measure (sm="PLOGIT")
argument freeman.tukey removed
Function summary.meta:
new arguments prediction and level.predict (prediction interval for a new study)
new list component tau.common considered internally (for objects of type metagen, metabin, metacont, metaprop, metacor)
modified such that correct values for list components incr, allincr, and addincr of metaprop object are considered in calculations
Function forest.meta:
modified such that prediction interval can be plotted (new arguments: prediction, level.predict, text.predict, col.predict, col.predict.lines, fs.predict, fs.predict.labels, ff.predict, ff.predict.labels)
modified such that correct values for list components incr, allincr, and addincr of metaprop object are considered in calculations
modified such that information on confidence limits is printed for pooled estimates if CI level is different from CI level for individual studies
Function print.summary.meta:
modified such that a prediction interval is printed if argument prediction is TRUE
new list component tau.common considered internally (for objects of type metagen, metabin, metacont, metaprop, metacor)
Function catmeth (only used internally):
print information if common tau-squared assumed across subgroups (argument tau.common)

Function forest.meta:
modified such that fixed effect and random effects estimates and confidence intervals are only (re)calculated for very old versions of R package meta (version number < 2.x-x)
Functions metabin:
bug fix such that function call with arguments sm="RR" and allstudies=TRUE does not result in an error in meta-analyses with zero events in both groups

Function forest.meta:
new argument lab.NA (default: lab.NA=".") to label NAs (in older version of R package meta the fixed label 'NA' was used)
modified such that arguments colgap.forest.left and colgap.forest.right are considered (instead of only colgap.forest)
Functions labbe.metabin and labbe.default:
bug fix such that function call does not result in an error if any event probability is equal to NA
Function format.p (only used internally):
bug fix such that function call does not result in an error if any NAs were provided in the first function argument

Function metabin:
modified so that studies with all events in both groups will be included in meta-analysis by default (in older versions of R package meta these studies were only included if argument allstudies=TRUE)
modified so that the standard error is positive for studies with all events in both groups (see Hartung & Knapp (2001), Stat Med, equation (18))
Function forest.meta:
modified so that values provided by argument xlim will be printed on x-axis label for relative effect measures (i.e. argument sm is equal to "RR", "OR", or "HR")
internally calculated default values for arguments smlab.pos and xlab.pos changed such that they will always lie within plotting range

Functions forest.meta, metacum, metainf and print.meta:
modified so that backtransformation of Freeman-Tukey Double arcsine transformation (argument sm='PFT' in function metaprop) is calculated correctly for objects of class 'metacum' and 'metainf'
Function asin2p:
modified so that values outside the admissible range are set to the boundary values (i.e. results in estimated probabilities of 0 or 1). A warning is printed in this case.
Help pages metacum and metainf:
new argument n.harmonic.mean documented

Function forest.meta:
modified so that the function works for an object of class 'metacum' or 'metainf' and argument sm equal to 'PFT' which previously resulted in an error message 'Error in if (col$range[1] <= TE.fixed & TE.fixed <= col$range[2]) ...'

Functions forest.meta, metacum, metainf, summary.meta:
modified so that the function works if argument 'method.tau' is different from the default which previously resulted in an error message 'Error in sqrt(W) %*% X : non-conformable arguments'
Function forest.meta:
argument 'byvar' uses corresponding list element from meta-analysis object as default

Function summary.meta:
list element 'k0' added to returned object for trim-and-fill method
Function print.summary.meta:
print number of added studies for trim-and-fill method

Functions trimfill.meta and trimfill.default:
arguments hakn and method.tau added
Functions metacum and metainf:
modified so that class 'trimfill' is added to object if function metacum or metainf is used on object of class 'trimfill'
Function catmeth, print.meta, print.summary.meta:
modified so that information on use of trim-and-fill method is printed
Functions metabias.meta:
modified so that an error message is printed if used with object of class 'metacum' or 'metainf'
Functions funnel.meta:
modified so that an error message is printed if used with object of class 'metacum' or 'metainf'
modified so that by default different plot symbols (argument pch) are used with object of class 'trimfill'
Function .onLoad:
modified so that version nummer of meta package is printed when library is loaded
Help pages trimfill.meta and trimfill.default:
arguments hakn and method.tau documented
Help page funnel.meta:
changed default for argument pch documented

Function metaprop:
modified so that variance estimate for log- and logit-transformation (sm="PLN" and sm="PLOGIT") is based on Pettigrew et al. (1986).
Reference Pettigrew et al. (1986) has been added to the following help pages:
metabin, metaprop

Function metaprop:
modified so that a warning is printed if any sample size (argument n) is smaller than 10 for Freeman-Tukey double arcsine transformation, i.e. sm="PFT"

Functions metabin, metacont, metacor, metagen, metaprop:
modified so that these functions can be used with arguments subset and byvar of different length

R package meta linked to R package metafor to provide additional statistical methods, e.g. meta-regression and other estimates for tau-squared (REML, ...)

New functions:
metareg (meta-regression)
metabias (generic method for function metabias)
metabias.default (generic method for function metabias)
metabias.meta (generic method for function metabias)
metabias.rm5 (generic method for function metabias)
print.rm5 (generic method for rm5-object)
print.summary.rm5 (generic method for rm5-object)
summary.rm5 (generic method for rm5-object)
catmeth (function used internally)
crtitle (function used internally)
hypergeometric (function used internally)
is.installed.metafor (function used internally)
kentau (function used internally)
linregcore (function used internally)
p2logit (function used internally)
Functions metabin, metacont, metacor, metagen, metaprop:
new arguments:
hakn (Hartung-Knapp method)
method.tau (estimation method for tau-squared)
tau.preset (fixed value for tau)
TE.tau (pre-specified treatment effect to estimate tau)
method.bias (test for funnel plot asymmetry used in metabias)
label.left (Label on left side of forest plot, new argument in functions metabin, metacont, and metagen)
label.right (Label on right side of forest plot, new argument in functions metabin, metacont, and metagen)
warn (print warning messages, new argument in functions metacont and metagen)
new list components of returned object:
se.tau2 (standard error of tau-squared)
hakn (Hartung-Knapp method)
method.tau (estimation method for tau-squared)
tau.preset (fixed value for tau)
TE.tau (pre-specified treatment effect to estimate tau)
method.bias (test for funnel plot asymmetry used in metabias)
label.left (Label on left side of forst plot, new list component in functions metabin, metacont, and metagen)
label.right (Label on right side of forst plot, new list component in functions metabin, metacont, and metagen)
argument 'warn' suppresses more warning messages if FALSE
function metabin: studies are excluded from meta-analysis if (event.e > n.e | event.c > n.c) or (n.e <= 0 | n.c <= 0) or (event.e < 0 | event.c < 0)
Function metacum and metainf:
modified so that NULL is returned if function is used with a single study
modified so that new arguments hakn, method.tau, tau.preset, method.bias, label.left, label.right are considered in execution of the function
argument level removed
Function metaprop:
modified so that the correct variance function 1/(n+0.5) instead of 1/(n+1) is used for the Freeman-Tukey double arcsine transformation (i.e. sm="PFT") - see also news on function asin2p
Function asin2p:
completely rewritten as back transformation of Freeman-Tukey transformed proportions was inaccurate
back transformation of Freeman-Tukey proportions according to Miller (1978) - see help page of R command metaprop
Function print.metabias:
print a warning if number of studies is too small to conduct a test for funnel plot asymmetry (see new argument k.min)
Function print.summary.meta:
new argument bylab.nchar
print test for subgroup differences for both fixed effect and random effects model
value 'invisible(NULL)' returned for metacum and metainf objects
Function metacr:
new arguments:
sm (summary measure)
method (pooling method)
comb.fixed (fixed effect model)
comb.random (random effects model)
swap.events (only for binary data)
method.tau (estimation method for between-study variance)
hakn (Hartung-Knapp adjustment)
title (Title of Cochrane review)
complab (Comparison label)
outclab (Outcome label)
warn (print warning messages)
removed argument:
smother (summary measure)
value 'NULL' returned if no data is available for selection of comp.no and outcome.no
Function read.rm5:
changed substantially for reading of RevMan 5.1 files
Function summary.meta:
modified so that new arguments hakn, method.tau, tau.preset, method.bias are considered in execution of the function
argument 'warn' suppresses more warning messages
Function forest.meta:
modified so that the treatment effect and 95% confidence interval is printed in the correct order for objects of class metaprop if argument sort or order is used
symmetric forest plot by default (argument xlim="s")
new arguments:
smlab, smlab.pos, fs.smlab, fflab (Label for summary measure - at top of figure)
label.right, label.left, fs.lr, ff.lr (Label on right and left side)
overall.hetstat (heterogeneity information for overall effect)
Function funnel.default and funnel.meta:
modified so that arguments col.fixed and col.random are recognised
Function metabias.default and metabias.meta:
new argument k.min: test for funnel plot asymmetry only conducted if number of studies in meta-analysis is larger or equal to k.min
new argument '...' (ignored at the moment)
Function trimfill.default and trimfill.meta:
value 'invisible(NULL)' returned if number of studies is smaller than 3
New datasets: amlodipine, cisapride
File FLEISS93.MTV moved from directory data to directory extdata
Several help pages updated
Some new help pages added

Function forest.meta:
modified so that the number of events is printed in the correct order for objects of class metaprop if argument sort or order is used
modified so that transformed proportions are printed for individual studies in column 'TE' if function metagen is used with argument sm equal to either 'PLN', 'PLOGIT', 'PAS', or 'PFT'
Function as.data.frame.meta:
modified so that the function works for meta-analyses with six studies which previously resulted in an error message 'Error: evaluation nested too deeply: infinite recursion ...'
modified so that additional arguments '...' can be passed to function
Function addvar:
option stringsAsFactors=FALSE added to internal call of R function as.data.frame.meta
additional checks for existence of columns by.x and by.y
additional checks for situations with duplicate entries for columns by.x and by.y added
Function print.meta:
modified so that back-transformed proportions are printed for individual studies if function metagen is used with argument sm equal to either 'PLN', 'PLOGIT', 'PAS', or 'PFT'
Examples in help pages (slightly) updated:
read.mtv, read.rm5, metacr

Function forest.meta:
for subgroup analyses (i.e. groups defined by argument 'byvar'), result for both fixed effect and random effects model are printed (in older versions of the meta package only results for either fixed effect or random effects model could be printed)
new arguments text.fixed.w and text.random.w to specify label for estimates within subgroups
new arguments to change colour of several parts of the plot: col.i.inside.square, col.square, col.square.lines, col.diamond, col.diamond.fixed, col.diamond.random, col.diamond.lines, col.diamond.fixed.lines, col.diamond.random.lines
new arguments to print information on heterogeneity measures: print.I2, print.tau2, print.Q, print.pval.Q, hetstat, hetlab
new arguments to change fontsize and fontface of several parts of the plot: fs.heading, fs.fixed, fs.random, fs.study, fs.fixed.labels, fs.random.labels, fs.study.labels, fs.hetstat, fs.axis, fs.xlab, ff.heading, ff.fixed, ff.random, ff.study, ff.fixed.labels, ff.random.labels, ff.study.labels, ff.hetstat, ff.axis, ff.xlab
new arguments to change gap between columns colgap.left, colgap.right=colgap, colgap.forest, colgap.forest.left, colgap.forest.right
new argument 'just' to change justification of text for additional columns
new argument 'addspace' to print a blank line at top and bottom of study results
argument 'squaresize' supersedes argument 'boxsize'
new argument 'new' indicating whether a new figure should be printed in an existing graphics window (internally, the grid.newpage command is used if new=TRUE)
no line is printed for the fixed effect and random effects model if lty.fixed=NULL or lty.random=NULL, respectively
symmetric forest plots can be produced by setting argument xlim="s"
Function print.summary.meta:
new argument print.CMH indicating whether Cochran-Mantel-Haenszel test for overall effect should be printed (default print.CMH=FALSE)
For subgroup analyses (i.e. groups defined by argument 'byvar'), result for test of heterogeneity printed separately for fixed effect and random effects model
Functions metabin and summary.meta:
new argument print.CMH indicating whether Cochran-Mantel-Haenszel test for overall effect should be printed (default print.CMH=FALSE)
Help pages updated:
forest.meta, metabin, print.summary.meta, summary.meta

Version jump to 1.5-0 as several changes have been implemented.
New functions:
metacor (meta-analysis of correlations)
forest (generic method for forest plots)
forest.meta (generic method for forest plots)
radial (generic method for radial plots)
radial.default (generic method for radial plots)
radial.meta (generic method for radial plots)
asin2p (function used internally)
logit2p (function used internally)
xlab (function used internally)
z2cor (function used internally)
Functions forest.meta:
new arguments (pooled.totals, pooled.events) to specify whether total number of observations and events should be displayed in the plot
new argument (pscale) to rescale proportions for objects of class metaprop
modified so that argument label is recognised for other effect measures than RR, OR, and HR
modified so that argument xlim is recognised for other effect measures than RR, OR, and HR
arguments rightlabs and leftlabs accept NAs for columns using default labels
modified so that significant digits are printed uniformly
correct sum of percentage weight is printed for random effects model in forest plots with subgroups
x limits (min,max) of the plot are defined by the width of confidence intervals instead of (0,1) for objects of class metaprop
Function metaprop:
implementation of additional transformations: log transformation, logit transformation, raw, i.e. untransformed, proportions
new argument sm to choose summary measure (i.e. transformation)
use of argument freeman.tukey is deprecated (use argument sm instead)
Functions funnel and funnel.meta:
argument y removed
Functions labbe and labbe.meta:
argument y removed
Functions trimfill and trimfill.meta:
argument seTE removed
Function summary.meta:
new list objects H.w, I2.w, Q.b.fixed and Q.b.random for heterogeneity statistics within subgroups
Extension for meta-analysis of correlations:
forest.meta, metacum, metainf, print.meta, print.summary.meta, summary.meta
Function plot.meta:
a warning is printed that the function is no longer maintained (function forest.meta should be used instead)
New list element version with information on version number of meta package used to create an object (applies only to object creating functions, e.g. metabin, metabias).
Several help pages updated
Use file NEWS instead of ChangeLog to document changes

Functions summary.meta, print.summary.meta:
modified so that a test for subgroup differences is not calculated and printed for meta-analyses using the Mantel-Haenszel method for binary data

Functions metabin, metacont, metagen, metaprop:
modified so that a sensible default value is used for argument bylab if argument byvar is not missing

Function forest:
modified so that additional columns are printed in the correct order if argument sort or order is used

Function forest (incl. help page):
new argument digits specifying minimal number of significant digits for treatment estimate and its confidence interval

Function summary.meta:
modified so that results for subgroups (if byvar != NULL) are calculated for both fixed effect and random effects model:
list 'within' no longer returned by function summary.meta
lists 'within.fixed' and 'within.random' returned by function summary.meta
modified so that variable name of subgroups is printed correctly
check whether input is an object of class summary.meta
Function print.summary.meta:
modified so that a warning is printed if both comb.fixed and comb.random are TRUE and results for subgroups are supposed to be printed
Help pages of functions print.summary.meta and forest updated:
detailed information on printing and plotting of subgroup results if both comb.fixed and comb.random are TRUE
Help page of function metagen updated:
new example with meta-analysis of survival data

New functions trimfill, trimfill.default and trimfill.meta:
generic method for trim-and-fill method

New functions labbe, labbe.default, labbe.metabin:
produce L'Abbe plots
New functions funnel, funnel.default and funnel.meta:
generic method for funnel plots
Functions funnel.default and funnel.meta:
modified so that contour-enhanced funnel plots can be produced (new arguments: contour.levels, col.contour, ref)
modified so that study labels can be printed on funnel plot (new arguments: studlab, cex.studlab)
modified so that line type, width and colour can be changed for fixed effect treatment effect (new arguments: lty.fixed, lwd.fixed, col.fixed)
modified so that random effects treatment effect can be plotted (new arguments: comb.random, lty.random, lwd.random, col.random)
new default values for arguments:
pch=21 (previously: pch=1)
comb.fixed=x$comb.fixed
modified so that background colour of points in funnel plot can be changed (new argument: bg)
Function forest:
new default values for arguments lab.e and lab.c: x$label.e and x$label.c, respectively. If these values are NULL the old default values "Experimental" and "Control" are used.
Functions metabin, metacont, metagen:
arguments label.e and label.c added
Function metacr:
use arguments label.e and label.c in calls to functions metabin, metacont, metagen

First major version released on CRAN (no ChangeLog available)
Older versions (without ChangeLog):
meta, version 0.9-19 (2009-04-09)
meta, version 0.9-18 (2009-03-03)
meta, version 0.9-17 (2009-01-28)
meta, version 0.9-15 (2008-12-08)
meta, version 0.8-2 (2007-02-13)
meta, version 0.81 (2006-11-29)
meta, version 0.8 (2006-11-24)
First CRAN release (2006-02-08)
meta, version 0.5-0 (2005-02-23)

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meta documentation built on June 7, 2023, 5:08 p.m.

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Note that we can't provide technical support on individual packages. You should contact the package authors for that.

meta General Package for Meta-Analysis

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meta
General Package for Meta-Analysis

NEWS.md
In meta: General Package for Meta-Analysis