2013-05-12, version 2.3-0

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 so that function call with arguments sm="RR" and
  allstudies=TRUE does not result in an error message in meta-analyses
  with zero events in both groups


2013-03-20, version 2.2-1

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 so that function call does not result in an error message if
  any event probability is equal to NA

Function format.p (only used internally):
- bug fix so that function call does not result in an error message if
  any NAs were provided in the first function argument


2013-03-12, version 2.2-0

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 withing plotting
  range


2012-11-29, version 2.1-4

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


2012-11-20, version 2.1-3

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]) ...'


2012-10-25, version 2.1-2

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


2012-08-12, version 2.1-1

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


2012-05-18, version 2.1-0

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 error message is printed if used with object of
  class 'metacum' or 'metainf'

Functions funnel.meta:
- modified so that 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


2012-05-03, version 2.0-4

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


2012-04-17, version 2.0-2

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


2012-04-04, version 2.0-1

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


2012-03-20, version 2.0-0

Major revision

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 (prespecified 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 (prespecified 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-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

Update of several help pages. Some new help pages added.


2010-10-28, version 1.6-1

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 backtransformed proportions are printed
   for individual studies if function metagen is used with
   argument sm equal to either 'PLN', 'PLOGIT', 'PAS', or 'PFT'

Examples given in the following help pages have been (slightly)
updated:
 - read.mtv, read.rm5, metacr


2010-06-21, version 1.6-0

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' superseeds 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)

The following help pages have been updated:
- forest.meta, metabin, print.summary.meta, summary.meta


2010-05-07, version 1.5-0

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).

Update of several help pages.

Use file NEWS instead of ChangeLog to document changes.


2010-01-12, version 1.1-8

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


2010-01-11, version 1.1-7

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


2010-01-11, version 1.1-6

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


2009-12-21, version 1.1-5

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


2009-11-04, version 1.1-4

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


2009-10-30, version 1.1-3

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


2009-10-09, version 1.1-2

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


2009-08-31, version 1.0-6

First major version released on CRAN


No NEWS available for versions < 1.0