Meta-analysis of univariate P-values

ABSTRACT

We propose a new meta-analysis method to pool univariate p-values across independent studies and we compare our method with that of Fisher, Stouffer, and George through simulations and identify sub-spaces where each of these methods are optimal and propose a strategy to choose the best meta-analysis method under different sub-spaces. We compare these meta-analysis approaches using p-values from periodicity tests of 4,940 S. Pombe genes from 10 independent time-course experiments and show that our new approach ranks the periodic, conserved, and cycling genes much higher, and detects at least as many genes among the top 1,000 genes, compared to other methods.

KEYWORDS:

• Meta-analysis
• Univariate p-values

MATHEMATICS SUBJECT CLASSIFICATION:

• 62–07 Data Analysis
• 62F03 Hypothesis testing

Acknowledgment

We like to thank Dr. Ebenezer O. George of University of Memphis for the helpful discussions on the Exact Uniform approach and on the results of the simulations.