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Table 3 Annotated taxonomy of 208 retrieved graphical displays for meta-analysis

From: Charting the landscape of graphical displays for meta-analysis and systematic reviews: a comprehensive review, taxonomy, and feature analysis

IDNameYearSource reference
1.1Confidence interval plot, caterpillar plot1978[23]
1.2Forest plot1982n.a.
1.2.1Subgroup forest plotn.a.n.a.
1.2.2Summary forest plotn.a.n.a.
1.2.3Shrinkage plot, Bayesian forest plotn.a.n.a.
1.2.4Raindrop plot2003[29]
1.2.5Limits of equivalence forest plot2007[30]
1.2.6Confidence distribution plot2010[31]
1.2.7Rainforest plot2015[22]
1.2.8Thick forest plot2015[23]
1.2.9Contour-enhanced forest plot2017[32]
1.3Odd man out plot1988[33]
1.4Fuzzy number plot2016[34]
1.4.1Fuzzy number plot with subgroups2016[34]
2.1Funnel plot1984[35]
2.1.1Subgroup funnel plot1984[35]
2.1.2Regression test funnel plot1997[36]
2.1.3Funnel plot with weighted mean, median and mode1998[37]
2.1.4Trim-and-fill funnel plot2000[38]
2.1.5Significance contour-enhanced funnel plot2008[39]
2.1.6Additional evidence contours funnel plot: Summary effect significance2012[40]
2.1.7Additional evidence contours funnel plot: Heterogeneity2012[40]
2.1.8Additional evidence contours funnel plot: Summary CI width2012[41]
2.1.9Additional evidence contours funnel plot: Summary CI lower/upper bound2012[41]
2.1.10Additional evidence contours funnel plot: Limits of equivalence2012[41]
2.1.11Additional evidence contours funnel plot: Summary effect2015[42]
2.1.12Funnel plot with imputed non-statistically-significant unreported effects2015[43]
2.1.13Meta-analyser funnel plot2016[44]
2.1.14Funnel plot with summary diamondn.a.n.a.
2.1.15Funnel plot with bias-corrected effect sizesn.a.n.a.
2.2Galbraith plot (a.k.a. radial plot)1988[45]
2.2.1Subgroup Galbraith plot1988[45]
2.2.2Galbraith plot with Egger regression1997[36]
2.2.33D Galbraith plotn.a.n.a.
2.3Gravity plot2005[46]
2.4Doi plot2016[47]
2.5Begg and Mazmudar test displayn.a.n.a.
2.5.1Begg and Mazmudar test display with subgroupsn.a.n.a.
3.1Scatterplot of effect size with continuous moderator1977[6]
3.1.1Binned scatterplotn.a.n.a.
3.2Meta-regression plot1977[6]
3.2.1Meta-regression weight bubble plotn.a.n.a.
3.2.2Meta-regression plot with subgroupsn.a.n.a.
3.2.3Meta-regression plot with confidence or prediction bandsn.a.n.a.
3.2.4Meta-regression plot including effect-size confidence intervals1984[35]
3.2.5Surface plot1998[48]
3.2.6Trim-and-fill meta-regression plot2012[49]
3.2.7Meta-analytic regression/classification tree2014[50]
3.2.8Meta-analytic partial dependence plot2017[51]
3.3Time-to-event data: Meta-STEPP2016[52]
4.1Tau square sensitivity plot1993[53]
4.1.1Tau square sensitivity plot with posterior distributionn.a.n.a.
4.2Leave-one-out sensitivity lineplot1998[37]
4.2.1Leave-one-out sensitivity forest plot2000[54]
4.3Baujat plot2002[55]
4.4Number of additional participants required to obtain significance plot2003[56]
4.5Influence plot2010[57]
4.6Study influence and outlier diagnostic lineplots2010[57]
4.7Metaplot2010[58]
4.8GOSH plot2012[59]
4.9Outlier probability plot2014[60]
4.10Forward plot2016[61]
4.11Impact of unmeasured confounding sensitivity plot2017[62]
4.12Tau square estimator sensitivity plotn.a.n.a.
4.13Cross-validated residual plotn.a.n.a.
5.1Effect-size time-series plot1984[35]
5.1.1Quality control chart: X bar chart2010[63]
5.1.2Quality control chart: CUMSUM chart2010[63]
5.2Cumulative meta-analysis plot1992[64]
5.2.1Subgroup cumulative meta-analysisn.a.n.a.
5.2.2Cumulative meta-analysis with monitoring boundaries1997[65]
5.2.3Cumulative summary effect ratio plot1999[66]
5.2.4Cumulative heterogeneity plot2004[67]
5.2.5Cumulative Bayes factor plot2016[68]
5.2.6Predicted Bayes factor for an additional study plot2017[69]
5.3Plot of cumulative results2015[70]
5.4Comparison of meta-analyses: Initial vs. subsequent evidence scatterplotn.a.n.a.
6.1Histogramn.a.n.a.
6.1.1Histogram, weightedn.a.n.a.
6.1.2Histogram, subgroupsn.a.n.a.
6.2Boxplotn.a.n.a.
6.2.1Boxplot, weightedn.a.n.a.
6.3Stem-and-leaf displayn.a.n.a.
6.3.1Stem-and-leaf display, subgroupsn.a.n.a.
6.4Dot plotn.a.n.a.
6.5Density plotn.a.n.a.
6.5.1Density plot, weightedn.a.n.a.
6.5.2Density plot, subgroupsn.a.n.a.
6.6Collection of study-effect likelihoods1993[71]
6.7Normal quantile-quantile (Q-Q) plot of effect sizes1998[72]
7.1Bar chartn.a.n.a.
7.2Pie chartn.a.n.a.
7.3Line/dot chart with continuous covariaten.a.n.a.
7.4Risk of bias plot2008[73]
7.4.1Risk of bias summary plot2008[73]
7.5Harvest plot2008[24]
7.6PRISMA flow chart2009[74]
7.7Comparison of meta-analyses: Veritas plot2009[75]
7.8Error matrix display2010[76]
7.8.13D error matrix plot2010[76]
7.9Effect-direction plot2013[77]
7.10Evidence-map bubble plot2016[78]
7.11Dendrogram of meta-cluster analysis2017[79]
8.1Dichotomous outcomes: L’Abbé plot1987[80]
8.1.1Dichotomous outcomes: Subgroup L’Abbé plot1987[80]
8.1.2Dichotomous outcomes: L’Abbé plot with summary effect contours1997[81]
8.1.3Dichotomous outcomes: L’Abbé weight bubble plotn.a.n.a.
8.1.4Dichotomous outcomes: Baseline graphn.a.n.a.
8.2Time-to-event data: Study survival curves1989[82]
8.3Bivariate meta-analysis plot1993[71]
8.3.1Bivariate meta-analysis plot with confidence ellipse1993[71]
8.3.2Cross-hairs scatterplot2016[83]
8.3.3Cross-hairs scatterplot with subgroups2016[83]
8.4Dichotomous outcomes: ROC plot1993[84]
8.4.1Dichotomous outcomes: ROC plot with summary ROC curve1993[84]
8.4.2Dichotomous outcomes: Cross-hairs plot2010[85]
8.4.3Dichotomous outcomes: ROC plot with subgroupsn.a.n.a.
8.5Dichotomous outcomes: Treatment benefit vs. control plot per 100 patients2001[86]
8.6Dichotomous outcomes: Olliaro display2010[87]
8.6.1Dichotomous outcomes: Subgroup Olliaro display2010[87]
8.7Dichotomous outcomes: Threshold plot2016[88]
8.8Meta-analytic Bland-Altman plotn.a.n.a.
9.1Glass distributional overlap display1976[5]
9.2Time-to-event data: Summary survival curve1989[82]
9.2.1Time-to-event data: Subgroup survival curves1989[82]
9.3Summary path diagram (SEM)1991[89]
9.4Genetic data: Summary q value plot2002[90]
9.5Genetic data: Summary Q-Q plot2003[91]
9.6Hattie barometer display2008[92]
9.7Comparison of meta-analyses: FEM vs. REM summary estimates2011[93]
9.8Comparison of meta-analyses: Heterogeneity2011[93]
9.9Comparison of meta-analyses: Tau square estimates2011[93]
9.10Genetic data: Meta-analytic circos plot2012[94]
9.11Fishbone diagram2017[95]
9.12Evidence flowers2018[96]
9.13Likelihood, prior, or posterior distribution plotn.a.n.a.
9.13.1Bootstrap chartn.a.n.a.
9.13.2Likelihood, confidence, or posterior region plot for two parametersn.a.n.a.
9.13.3Predictive distribution or interval plotn.a.n.a.
9.14Dichotomous outcomes: Fagan nomogramn.a.n.a.
9.14.1Dichotomous outcomes: Probability-modifying plotn.a.n.a.
9.15Genetic data: Meta-analytic Manhattan plotn.a.n.a.
9.15.1Genetic data: Meta-analytic Miami plotn.a.n.a.
9.15.2Genetic data: Meta-analytic regional association plotn.a.n.a.
9.16Genetic data: Meta-analytic volcano plotn.a.n.a.
9.17Genetic data: Position-summary line plotn.a.n.a.
9.18Genetic data: Summary heat mapn.a.n.a.
9.19Meta-analytic neuroimaging plotn.a.n.a.
10.1Schweder-Spjøtvoll plot1982[97]
10.2Publication-probability plot (selection model)1992[98]
10.3Sensitivity contour plot (selection model)2000[99]
10.4Test of excess significance alpha sensitivity plot2007[100]
10.5Caliper test display2008[101]
10.6Plot of truncated normal distribution2008[102]
10.7Genetic data: P-M plot2012[103]
10.8p-curve2014[104]
10.8.1p-curve sensitivity plot2016[105]
10.9p-value plot for selection bias (selection model)2015[106]
10.10Treatment effect plot (selection model)2015[106]
10.11Albatross plot2017[107]
10.11.1Albatross subgroup plot2017[107]
10.12Weighted effect-size density (selection model)n.a.n.a.
10.13Maximum-bias forest plotn.a.n.a.
11.1Network graph2002[108]
11.1.1Flow-of-evidence graph2013[109]
11.1.23D network graph2017[110]
11.1.3Matrix display of treatment comparisonsn.a.n.a.
11.2Contrast forest plot2008[111]
11.2.1Summary forest plot matrix2014[112]
11.2.2Summary forest plot table2014[112]
11.2.3Network indirect path decomposition forest plot2014[26]
11.2.4Invariant interval forest plot2017[113]
11.3Checkerboard unit plot2008[114]
11.4Treatment dissimilarity table plot2008[115]
11.4.1MDS inconsistency plot2008[115]
11.5Ranking table plot2009[116]
11.5.1Barplot of ranking probabilities2011[13]
11.5.2Median rank chart2014[112]
11.5.3Ranking and ranking probability for different outcome preferences2016[117]
11.5.4Ranking scatterplot for single outcome2013[14]
11.6Inconsistency plot2009[118]
11.7Rankogram (cumulative or absolute)2009[119]
11.7.1Probability to be within a range of the best treatment plot2011[11]
11.8Network meta-regression plot2009[120]
11.8.1Contribution network meta-regression plot2018[121]
11.8.2Heat network meta-regression plot2018[121]
11.9Diagnostic network plot (leverage, deviance, residuals)2009[120]
11.10Comparison-adjusted funnel plot2013[14]
11.11Contribution plot2013[25]
11.12Netheat plot2013[25]
11.13Shade plot for contrast weights of treatment comparison2013[122]
11.14Shade plot for p values of treatment comparison2013[122]
11.15Minimal parallelism vs. mean path length scatterplot2013[109]
11.16Hsu mean-mean plot2013[122]
11.17Clustered ranking plot for two outcomes2013[14]
11.18Network risk of bias chart2014[123]
11.18.1Network risk of bias direct evidence contribution chart2014[123]
11.19Bland-Altman heterogeneity plot2015[106]
11.20Rank heat plot2016[124]
11.21Hasse diagram2017[125]
11.22Partial orderings for two outcomes plot2017[125]
11.22.1Biplot of partial orderings for more than two outcomes2017[126]
11.23Invariant region plot2017[113]
11.24Bivariate network meta-analysis crosshair plot2018[127]
11.25Covariate distribution plot2018[121]
11.26Covariate contribution scatterplot2018[121]
11.27Covariate contribution heat plot2018[121]
11.28Network meta-analysis survival plotn.a.n.a.
  1. Shown for each display are its ID, the year of its introduction (or earliest retrievable source) in the context of meta-analysis, and the corresponding source reference. If no year of introduction, along with the corresponding source reference, could be identified with reasonable degree of confidence, the respective cell entry is n.a. (not available). A full presentation of the total of 208 displays and display variants is provided in Additional File 2. For each graph, the first digit of its 2-digit (or 3-digit) ID number refers to the assigned category in the taxonomy (1: Forest plot-like, 2: Funnel plot-like, 3: Continuous effect moderators, 4: Robustness, outlier, and influence diagnostics, 5: Cumulative meta-analysis and time trends, 6: Effect-size distribution, 7: Study or subgroup characteristics, 8: More than one outcome per study (multivariate), 9: Combined effect(s) only, 10: Study selection and p-value based, 11: Network meta-analysis). The second and third digits are serial numbers, which (for the second digit) are assigned chronologically within each main category, and (for the third digit) within each stem display are assigned for variants of the respective display
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BMC Medical Research Methodology

ISSN: 1471-2288

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