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Metafor and forest(); not showing 'ilab' and text

The 'xlim' argument does not change the actual width of the plotting device. For that, you need to use the 'width' argument with whatever device you are actually using. You can then use the 'xlim' argument to create appropriate spacing to the left/right of the part of the plot that shows the estimates and their CIs. Within that space, you can then add additional columns with the 'ilab' argument. It's up to you to find an appropriate combination of plotting device width, character/symbol expansion factor ('cex' argument), 'xlim' values, and 'ilab.xpos' values to create a nice looking plot that has no overlapping text and no excessive white space. An example is this:

http://www.metafor-project.org/doku.php/plots:forest_plot_with_subgroups 

Note that it took me dozens of iterations to create that plot. You just have to start experimenting.

Best,
Wolfgang