Assessing Publication Bias: a 7-Step User’s Guide with Best-Practice Recommendations

Meta-analytic reviews are a primary avenue for the generation of cumulative knowledge in the organizational and psychological sciences. Over the past decade or two, concern has been raised about the possibility of publication bias influencing meta-analytic results, which can distort our cumulative knowledge and lead to erroneous practical recommendations. Unfortunately, no clear guidelines exist for how meta-analysts ought to assess this bias. To address this issue, this paper develops a user’s guide with best-practice recommendations for the assessment of publication bias in meta-analytic reviews. To do this, we review the literature on publication bias and develop a step-by-step process to assess the presence of publication bias and gage its effects on meta-analytic results. Examples of tools and best practices are provided to aid meta-analysts when implementing the process in their own research. Although the paper is written primarily for organizational and psychological scientists, the guide and recommendations are not limited to any particular scientific domain.