Exploring the Distribution for the Estimator of Rosenthal's 'Fail-Safe' Number of Unpublished Studies in Meta-analysis

Abstract: The present paper discusses the statistical distribution for the estimator of Rosenthal's 'Fail-Safe' number NR, which is an estimator of unpublished studies in meta-analysis. We calculate the probability distribution function of NR. This is achieved based on the Central Limit Theorem and the proposition that certain components of the estimator NR follow a half normal distribution, derived from the standard normal distribution. Our proposed distributions are supported by simulations and investigation of convergence.