Quantitative Meta-Analyses: A Review of Current Practice

• In Event: 25.026 - Challenges in Meta-Analysis

Abstract

The meta-analysis is commonly used to synthesize treatments’ effects from previous studies. It is critical for methodologists and applied researchers to know current meta-analysis studies’ characteristics. Therefore, current study reviewed recent quantitative meta-analyses studies to assess applied researchers’ choices to help inform future methodological research and to assist applied meta-analysts with guidelines. We coded for general characteristics, analysis characteristics, moderator analysis characteristics, publication bias, and type of software program used. Results indicate that handling of dependency of multiple effect sizes within a study and handling missingness in moderator variables need to be more in-depth considered as methodological issues. Results are discussed and guidelines for applied meta-analysts are provided.

Authors

• Sunyoung Park, California Lutheran University

• Bethany Hamilton, The University of Texas at Austin

• Devin Dedrick

• Tasha Beretvas, The University of Texas at Austin