Using Precomputed Results

This vignette explains how to access and use the precomputed raw simulation results from the PublicationBiasBenchmark package. While the Using Precomputed Measures vignette describes how to work with summarized performance measures, this vignette focuses on accessing the individual simulation repetitions, allowing for custom analyses and detailed examination of method behavior.

For the sake of not re-downloading the simulation results every time you re-knit this vignette, we disable evaluation of code chunks below. (To examine the output, please copy to your local R session.)

Overview

The package provides access to the raw simulation results for all publication bias correction methods evaluated across different data-generating mechanisms (DGMs). Each result represents a single application of a method to a simulated meta-analytic dataset (i.e., iteration of a given DGM). Raw results contain the detailed output from each individual simulation repetition, including:

estimate (numeric): The meta-analytic effect size estimate from each method application
standard_error (numeric): Standard error of the estimate
ci_lower (numeric), ci_upper (numeric): Lower and upper bounds of the 95% confidence interval
p_value (numeric): P-value for testing the null hypothesis of no effect (if applicable)
BF (numeric): Bayes factor for the alternative hypothesis assuming the presence of effect (if applicable)
convergence (logical): Whether the method successfully converged
note (character): Additional notes describing convergence issues or warnings
Method-Specific Outputs: Additional columns specific to each method (e.g., bias_coefficient, tau, …)

Unlike the precomputed measures which summarize performance across repetitions, raw results allow you to:

Compute custom performance metrics not included in the standard measures
Examine the distribution of estimates across simulations
Investigate specific cases where methods fail or perform poorly
Create custom visualizations of method behavior
Conduct sensitivity analyses with different criteria

Available Data-Generating Mechanisms

The package includes precomputed results for all included DGMs. You can view the specific conditions for each DGM using the dgm_conditions() function:

# View conditions for the Stanley2017 DGM
conditions <- dgm_conditions("Stanley2017")
head(conditions)

Each condition represents a unique combination of simulation parameters (e.g., true effect size, heterogeneity, number of studies, publication bias severity).

Downloading Precomputed Results

Before accessing the precomputed results, you need to download them from the package repository. The download_dgm() function downloads the raw results for a specified DGM:

# Download precomputed results for the Stanley2017 DGM
download_dgm_results("Stanley2017")

Note: Raw results files are significantly larger than the summarized measures files. Each DGM may require several hundred megabytes of storage space. The results are downloaded to a local cache directory and are automatically available for subsequent analysis. You only need to download them once, unless the benchmark was updated with new method. The download function will display progress information and the total size of files being downloaded.

Retrieving Precomputed Results

Once downloaded, you can retrieve the precomputed results using the retrieve_dgm_results() function. This function offers flexible filtering options to extract exactly the data you need without loading the entire dataset into memory.

Retrieving a Specific Repetition

You can retrieve results for a specific method, condition, and repetition:

# Retrieve results for the first repetition of condition 1 for RMA method
retrieve_dgm_results(
  dgm            = "Stanley2017",
  method         = "PETPEESE",
  method_setting = "default"
  condition_id   = 1,
  repetition_id  = 1
)

This returns a data frame with a single row containing all the output from applying the RMA method to the first simulated dataset in condition 1.

Retrieving All Repetitions for a Condition

To retrieve all repetitions for a specific condition and method:

# Retrieve all repetitions for condition 1 of RMA method
condition_1_results <- retrieve_dgm_results(
  dgm            = "Stanley2017",
  method         = "PETPEESE",
  method_setting = "default"
  condition_id   = 1
)

# Examine the distribution of estimates
hist(condition_1_results$estimate, 
     main = "Distribution of RMA Estimates",
     xlab = "Effect Size Estimate")

Retrieving by Method

To retrieve all repetitions for a method:

# Retrieve all results for PET-PEESE method
pet_peese_results <- retrieve_dgm_results(
  dgm            = "Stanley2017",
  method         = "PETPEESE",
  method_setting = "default"
)

Retrieving All Results

To retrieve all results across all conditions, methods, and repetitions, simply omit all filtering arguments:

# Retrieve all results
df <- retrieve_dgm_results("Stanley2017")