albatros {metap}

Albatros plot

Description

Produces the albatros plot of Harrison et al

Usage

albatros(p, n, axes = list(xlimit = NULL, ylimit = NULL,
      lefttext = NULL, righttext = NULL),
   contours = list(type = NULL, contvals = NULL, ltys = NULL, contlabs = NULL),
   plotpars = list(yscale = NULL, pchs = NULL, cols = NULL), ...)

Arguments

p

A vector of \(p\) values

n

A vector of sample sizes

axes

A list containing

• xlimit a single value, the limit for the x-axis which is used symmetrically

• ylimit a vector of length 2, limits for the y-axis

• lefttext character, to label below plot

• righttext character, to label below plot

contours

A list containing

• type what effect size to use, a character one of "corr", "or", "smd"

• contvals a vector, what values to draw the contours at

• ltys a vector, what line types to use

• contlabs logical, draw the labels of the countours?

plotpars

A list containing

• yscale Scaling for y-axis, See details

• pchs Symbols to be used

• cols Colours for points

...

Arguments to be passed through to plot

Details

Plots \(n\) against \(p\) and draws contours of constant effect size.

The \(p\) value scale on the x-axis is a logarithmic one but folded at the null value so that the extreme values represent small probabilities in each direction. The scale for the y-axis is user selectable. The original scale in the Stata version is \((\log_{10}n)^2\) which is obtained by setting yscale to "classic" but it is also possible to use \(\sqrt{n}\) which is the default or \(n\) by setting yscale to "n". If the dataset contains extreme values the plot may be uninformative and the xlimit and ylimit parameters my be helpful to clip the plot. If they are not specified the function tries to choose suitable values.

For the contours if the type parameter in contours is NULL (the default) no contours will be plotted. The options available are “smd” (Standardised mean difference) “corr” (Correlation) “or” (Odds ratio).

The contours are labelled unless contlabs is set to FALSE. The function tries to position these so they are not obscured by the contour lines but if that is unsatisfactory then it is best to suppress them and position them manually or use a legend to identify line types.

The pch parameter may either be a single value or a vector of the same length as p. It may contain anything which is legal as input to the parameter of the same name in the graphics library and will be used for the plotted points. The cols parameter works similarly.

The values of lefttext and righttext are used to produce labels under the \(x\)-axis and are placed level with the label. By default they are not produced.

The return values from the function may be useful if further annotations are required as they give the axis limits in plotting units.

Value

Returns a list containing

xlims

The limits for the x-axis in plotting units

ylims

The limits for the y-axis in plotting units

Note

The docontours function is for internal use only

Author(s)

Michael Dewey

References

Harrison S, Jones HE, Martin RM, Lewis SJ, Higgins JPT (2017). “The albatros plot: A novel graphical tool for presenting the results of diversely reported studies in a systematic review.” Research Synthesis Methods, 8, 281–289.

See Also

For plotting parameters see par

Examples

data(dat.metap)
validity <- dat.metap$validity
fit.v <- albatros(validity$p, validity$n,
   contours = list(type = "corr", contvals = c(0.25, 0.5, 0.8), ltys = 1:3),
      axes = list(ylimit = c(1,200),  lefttext = "Negative correlation",
         righttext = "Positive correlation"),
   main = "Validity")
#
fit.z <- albatros(dat.metap$zhang$p, dat.metap$zhang$n,
   contours = list(type = "smd", contvals = c(0.25, 0.5, 1), ltys = 1:3),
   plotpars = list(pchs = letters[unclass(dat.metap$zhang$phase)]),
   axes = list(lefttext = "Favours control", righttext = "Favours exercise"),
   main = "Zhang"
   )