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The current paper shows how methodology that reduces the asymptotic bias of the maximum likelihood estimator of the variance component can also substantially improve inference about the mean effect size. The results are derived for the more general framework of random-effects meta-regression, which allows the mean effect size to vary with study-specific covariates.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1093\/biomet\/asx001","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2017,1,9]],"date-time":"2017-01-09T09:34:27Z","timestamp":1483954467000},"page":"489-496","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":12,"title":["Improving the accuracy of likelihood-based inference in meta-analysis and meta-regression"],"prefix":"10.1093","volume":"104","author":[{"given":"I.","family":"Kosmidis","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Statistical Science, University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, U.K. i.kosmidis@ucl.ac.uk"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"A.","family":"Guolo","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Statistical Sciences, University of Padova, Via Cesare Battisti 241\/243, 35121 Padova, Italy annamaria.guolo@unipd.it"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"C.","family":"Varin","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Environmental Sciences, Informatics and Statistics, Ca\u2019 Foscari University of Venice, Via Torino 150, 30170 Venezia Mestre, Italy cristiano.varin@unive.it"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"286","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2017,3,8]]},"reference":[{"key":"2019071815500918200_B1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","DOI":"10.1002\/9780470743386","volume-title":"Introduction to Meta-Analysis","author":"Borenstein,","year":"2009"},{"key":"2019071815500918200_B2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"825","DOI":"10.1002\/sim.650","article-title":"A comparison of statistical methods for meta-analysis","volume":"20","author":"Brockwell,","year":"2001","journal-title":"Statist. 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