We are delighted that the tool for assessing Risk Of Bias due to Missing Evidence in systematic reviews with meta-analysis (ROB-ME) has been published in the BMJ.

The reporting of primary studies or results may be influenced by magnitude, direction, and statistical significance of the study results. This can lead to bias in a meta-analysis because the available evidence differs systematically from the missing evidence. While existing methods mostly help users assess whether selective non-publication of studies or selective non-reporting of study results has occurred, ROB-ME presents the first structured approach for assessing the risk of bias that arises when entire studies or particular results within studies are missing from meta-analyses because of the p-value, magnitude, or direction of the study results (i.e., due to non-reporting biases).

The scope, development, and an overview of the tool together with worked examples of applying the tool are published in the BMJ. The full ROB-ME tool and the guidance documents are available here.