{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,16]],"date-time":"2026-10-16T06:46:16Z","timestamp":1792133176802,"version":"4.4.0"},"reference-count":43,"publisher":"Wiley","issue":"23-24","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,15]],"date-time":"2026-10-15T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1792022400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":14,"URL":"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"},{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,1]],"date-time":"2026-10-01T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1790812800000},"content-version":"tdm","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"http:\/\/doi.wiley.com\/10.1002\/tdm_license_1.1"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100001659","name":"Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["NI 2226\/1\u20101"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["NI 2226\/1\u20101"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100001659","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100001659","name":"Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["Project\u2010ID 499552394 SFB 1597"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["Project\u2010ID 499552394 SFB 1597"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100001659","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100000266","name":"Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["EP\/Y007905\/1"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["EP\/Y007905\/1"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100000266","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":["onlinelibrary.wiley.com"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Statistics in Medicine"],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2026,10]]},"abstract":"<jats:title>ABSTRACT<\/jats:title>\n                  <jats:p>Network Meta\u2010Analysis (NMA) is a statistical technique for synthesizing evidence from various sources to compare multiple interventions. NMA relies on integrating both direct evidence from head\u2010to\u2010head comparisons and indirect evidence from different paths that link treatments through common comparators. A key aspect is evaluating consistency between direct and indirect sources. Existing methods to detect inconsistency, although widely used, have limitations. For example, they do not account for differences between indirect sources or cannot estimate inconsistency when direct evidence is absent. In this paper, we introduce a path\u2010based approach that explores all sources of evidence without separating direct and indirect. We introduce a measure based on the square of differences to quantitatively capture inconsistency, and propose a Netpath plot to visualize inconsistencies between various paths. Moreover, it enables the evaluation of inconsistency even for treatment comparisons lacking direct evidence as long as at least two independent paths of evidence are available. We provide an implementation of our path\u2010based method within the netmeta R package. Via application to fictional and real\u2010world examples, we show that our method is able to detect and visualize inconsistency between multiple paths of evidence that would otherwise be masked by considering all indirect sources together. The path\u2010based approach therefore provides a more comprehensive evaluation of inconsistency within a network of treatments.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1002\/sim.70752","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,16]],"date-time":"2026-10-16T03:13:13Z","timestamp":1792120393000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1002\/crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["A Path\u2010Based Approach for Detecting and Assessing Inconsistency in Network Meta\u2010Analysis"],"prefix":"10.1002","volume":"45","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0000-9660-3655","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Noosheen R.","family":"Tahmasebi","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute for Medical Biometry and Statistics (IMBI) Faculty of Medicine and Medical Center, University of Freiburg  Freiburg Germany"},{"name":"Institute for Evidence in Medicine (IfEM) Faculty of Medicine and Medical Center, University of Freiburg  Freiburg Germany"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-2320-7701","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Annabel L.","family":"Davies","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Bristol Medical School University of Bristol  Bristol UK"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-6630-6817","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Theodoros","family":"Papakonstantinou","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute for Medical Biometry and Statistics (IMBI) Faculty of Medicine and Medical Center, University of Freiburg  Freiburg Germany"},{"name":"Laboratory of Hygiene, Social and Preventive Medicine and Medical Statistics School of Medicine, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki  Thessaloniki Greece"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-2192-2560","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Gerta","family":"R\u00fccker","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute for Medical Biometry and Statistics (IMBI) Faculty of Medicine and Medical Center, University of Freiburg  Freiburg Germany"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Adriani","family":"Nikolakopoulou","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute for Medical Biometry and Statistics (IMBI) Faculty of Medicine and Medical Center, University of Freiburg  Freiburg Germany"},{"name":"Laboratory of Hygiene, Social and Preventive Medicine and Medical Statistics School of Medicine, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki  Thessaloniki Greece"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"311","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,15]]},"reference":[{"key":"e_1_2_13_2_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1002\/9780470691922.ch1"},{"key":"e_1_2_13_3_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1002\/sim.1201"},{"key":"e_1_2_13_4_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1002\/jrsm.1037"},{"key":"e_1_2_13_5_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1002\/sim.1875"},{"key":"e_1_2_13_6_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.12688\/f1000research.14770.3"},{"key":"e_1_2_13_7_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1002\/sim.3767"},{"key":"e_1_2_13_8_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1186\/1471\u20102288\u201013\u201035"},{"key":"e_1_2_13_9_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1002\/jrsm.1044"},{"key":"e_1_2_13_10_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1158\/1078\u20100432.CCR\u201008\u20100325"},{"key":"e_1_2_13_11_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1002\/sim.6236"},{"key":"e_1_2_13_12_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.3102\/10769986017004279"},{"key":"e_1_2_13_13_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/S0895\u20104356(97)00049\u20108"},{"key":"e_1_2_13_14_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1002\/9781118951651.ch7"},{"key":"e_1_2_13_15_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1007\/978-1-84628-970-5"},{"key":"e_1_2_13_16_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1002\/sim.10177"},{"key":"e_1_2_13_17_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1177\/1536867X1501500403"},{"key":"e_1_2_13_18_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1002\/sim.8383"},{"key":"e_1_2_13_19_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1007\/978-3-319-21416-0"},{"key":"e_1_2_13_20_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1186\/1471\u20102288\u201014\u2010131"},{"key":"e_1_2_13_21_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1080\/00031305.1978.10479237"},{"key":"e_1_2_13_22_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1002\/sim.6001"},{"key":"e_1_2_13_23_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1198\/016214505000001302"},{"key":"e_1_2_13_24_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1002\/jrsm.1700"},{"key":"e_1_2_13_25_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1002\/jrsm.1146"},{"key":"e_1_2_13_26_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1002\/sim.6632"},{"key":"e_1_2_13_27_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.18637\/jss.v106.i02"},{"key":"e_1_2_13_28_1","unstructured":"G.Schwarzer \u201cNetpath.R (Branch Netpath) [R Function] in Guido\u2010S\/Netmeta Github Repository \u201d(2025) https:\/\/github.com\/guido\u2010s\/netmeta\/tree\/netpath."},{"key":"e_1_2_13_29_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1177\/0962280211432220"},{"key":"e_1_2_13_30_1","volume-title":"Introduction to Algorithms","author":"Cormen T. H.","year":"1990"},{"key":"e_1_2_13_31_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jclinepi.2009.08.025"},{"key":"e_1_2_13_32_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1080\/00031305.2016.1154108"},{"key":"e_1_2_13_33_1","first-page":"149","volume-title":"Applied Multivariate Statistical Analysis","author":"Johnson R. A.","year":"2007"},{"key":"e_1_2_13_34_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1017\/S0305004100016595"},{"key":"e_1_2_13_35_1","volume-title":"Mathematics of Statistics, Part Two","author":"Kenney J. F.","year":"1951"},{"key":"e_1_2_13_36_1","volume-title":"Linear Algebra and Its Applications","author":"Strang G.","year":"1988"},{"key":"e_1_2_13_37_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1080\/07468342.1993.12345741"},{"key":"e_1_2_13_38_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.7717\/peerj\u2010cs.103"},{"key":"e_1_2_13_39_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.18637\/jss.v032.i03"},{"key":"e_1_2_13_40_1","unstructured":"R Core Team \u201cR: A Language and Environment for Statistical Computing \u201dR Foundation for Statistical Computing; Vienna Austria: 2025."},{"key":"e_1_2_13_41_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1017\/S0305004100030401"},{"key":"e_1_2_13_42_1","volume-title":"Matrix Computations","author":"Golub G. H.","year":"1996"},{"key":"e_1_2_13_43_1","first-page":"43","volume-title":"Regression and the Moore\u2010Penrose Pseudoinverse","author":"Albert A.","year":"1972"},{"key":"e_1_2_13_44_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1017\/S0305004100066172"}],"container-title":["Statistics in Medicine"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/onlinelibrary.wiley.com\/doi\/pdf\/10.1002\/sim.70752","content-type":"application\/pdf","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"text-mining"},{"URL":"https:\/\/onlinelibrary.wiley.com\/doi\/full-xml\/10.1002\/sim.70752","content-type":"application\/xml","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"text-mining"},{"URL":"https:\/\/onlinelibrary.wiley.com\/doi\/pdf\/10.1002\/sim.70752","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,16]],"date-time":"2026-10-16T06:03:55Z","timestamp":1792130635000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/onlinelibrary.wiley.com\/doi\/10.1002\/sim.70752"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2026,10]]},"references-count":43,"journal-issue":{"issue":"23-24","published-print":{"date-parts":[[2026,10]]}},"alternative-id":["10.1002\/sim.70752"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1002\/sim.70752","archive":["Portico"],"relation":{},"ISSN":["0277-6715","1097-0258"],"issn-type":[{"value":"0277-6715","type":"print"},{"value":"1097-0258","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2026,10]]},"assertion":[{"value":"2025-01-27","order":0,"name":"received","label":"Received","group":{"name":"publication_history","label":"Publication History"}},{"value":"2026-09-18","order":2,"name":"accepted","label":"Accepted","group":{"name":"publication_history","label":"Publication History"}},{"value":"2026-10-15","order":3,"name":"published","label":"Published","group":{"name":"publication_history","label":"Publication History"}}],"article-number":"e70752"}}