Fig. 4From: Evidence for a causal link between sepsis and long-term mortality: a systematic review of epidemiologic studies a One-sided contour-enhanced funnel (confunnel) plot. The figure either implies potential publication bias or consistency in results (implying causality)Â across the published studies identified by this systematic review. The confunnel plot adds contours of statistical significance to the standard funnel plot and assesses whether the areas where studies are potentially missing correspond to areas of low statistical significance, the assumption being that studies that do not attain statistical significance boundaries are less likely to be published. b Post-acute mortality versus acute mortality with linear fit superimposed and assessed between study dose-response effects. The equation, R-square statistics of the fit, the sample size and root mean square standard error (RMSE)(s) are also shown (referred to as aaplot and designed by Nicholas J. Cox)Back to article page