Visualization toolkits for enriching meta-analyses through evidence maps, bibliometrics, and alternative impact metrics
Why this work is in the frame
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Bibliographic record
Abstract
Data visualization is crucial for effectively communicating knowledge in meta-analysis. However, existing visualization methods in meta-analysis have predominantly focused on quantitative aspects, such as forest plots and funnel plots, thereby neglecting qualitative information that is equally important for end-users in science, policy, and practice. We introduce a framework consisting of a series of visualization toolkits designed to enrich meta-analyses by borrowing approaches from other research synthesis methods, including systematic evidence mapping (scoping reviews), bibliometrics (bibliometric analysis), and alternative impact metric analysis. These "enrichment" toolkits aim to facilitate the synthesis of both quantitative and qualitative evidence, along with the assessment of the academic and nonacademic influences of the meta-analytic evidence base. While the meta-analysis yields quantitative insights, the enrichment analyses, and visualizations provide user-friendly summaries of qualitative information on the evidence base. For example, a systematic evidence map can visualize study characteristics, unraveling knowledge gaps and methodological differences. Bibliometric analysis offers a visual assessment of the nonindependent evidence, such as hyper-dominant authors and countries, and funding sources, potentially informing the risk of bias. Alternative impact metric analysis employs alternative metrics to gauge societal influence and research translation (e.g., policy and patent citations) of studies in the meta-analysis. We provide a dedicated webpage showcasing sample visualizations and providing step-by-step implementation in open-source software R (https://yefeng0920.github.io/MA_Map_Bib/). Additionally, we offer a guide on leveraging three commercially free large language models (LLMs) to help adapt the sample script, enabling users with less R coding experience to visualize their own meta-analytic evidence base.
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Direct model labels (unvalidated)
Per-model category and study-design labels from the labeling rounds. They are machine output, unvalidated, and the disagreement between models ships as data. No study design here is MEDLINE-validated yet.
| Model arm | Categories | Study design | Confidence |
|---|---|---|---|
| gemma | MetaresearchBibliometrics Domain: Methods · Genre: Methods About the Canadian research system: no · About a Canadian topic: no | Not applicable | low |
| gpt | no category Domain: not available · Genre: Methods About the Canadian research system: no · About a Canadian topic: no | Other design | low |
Full frame distilled prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. Learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and 10,348 direct Gemma labels. Candidate is the union of thresholded teacher heads; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels or direct frontier model labels.
Codex and Gemma teacher scores by category
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.582 | 0.870 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.006 | 0.004 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.027 | 0.090 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.004 | 0.002 |
| Open science | 0.003 | 0.001 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.003 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from it