[gov3009-l] Applied Stats Workshop Next Week (2/6) - Maya Mathur

Dear workshop community, We will convene for the Applied Statistics Workshop (Gov 3009) next week on Wednesday (2/6). The speaker is* Maya Mathur *(Harvard Epidemiology) who will be presenting her work "Sensitivity analysis for publication bias and selective reporting in meta-analysis." *Where:* CGIS Knafel Building, Room K354 (see this link <https://map.harvard.edu/?bld=04471&level=9> for directions). *When: *Wednesday, February 6th at 12 noon - 1:30 pm. *Abstract:* We propose sensitivity analyses for selection in meta-analysis due to publication bias, selective reporting, and "p-hacking". We consider a publication process such that "statistically significant'' positive results are more likely to be published than negative or "nonsignificant'' results by an unknown ratio. Using inverse-probability weighting and robust estimation that accommodates non-normal true effects, small meta-analyses, and clustering, we develop sensitivity analyses that enable statements such as: "For publication bias to shift the observed point estimate to the null, 'significant' positive results would need to be at least 30-fold more likely to be published than negative or 'nonsignificant' results.'' Comparable statements can be made regarding shifting to a chosen non-null value or shifting the confidence interval. We show that a worst-case meta-analytic point estimate under maximal publication bias can be obtained simply by conducting a standard meta-analysis of only the negative and "nonsignificant'' studies; this method sometimes indicates that no amount of publication bias could "explain away'' the results. We illustrate the proposed methods using real-life meta-analyses. An R package is forthcoming. *All are welcome! Lunch is provided! * Best, Connor Jerzak Applied Statistics Workshop -- Graduate Student Coordinator An anonymous feedback form for the workshop can be found here at this link <https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScp4lPVBtp4Akf6K6ggmfcTUSIUHEJX89-CU8HWrQPpe9pjTw/viewform?usp=sf_link>. Workshop listserv sign-up at this link <https://lists.fas.harvard.edu/mailman/listinfo/gov3009-l>.