Meta-analysis 101: What, Why, and How

By Hassam Waheed,
Faculty of Business and Law
Taylor’s University
Malaysia

The number of published meta-analyses have increased exponentially over the decades, and are the most cited form of academic papers. Meta-analysis is a popular statistical technique for summarizing, integrating, and interpreting empirical research. Since a meta-analysis aggregates conceptually and statistically similar studies, it offers greater statistical power to detect relevant effects than any single study. Through a meta-analysis, a researcher is able to answer questions that may not be possible to answer in any single study. Resultantly, a meta-analysis takes the top spot in a hierarchy of evidence-based research, followed by systematic reviews and randomized controlled trials (RCTs). The aim of this seminar is to provide a basic overview of a meta-analysis to undergraduates, postgraduates, academics and researchers who have no prior meta-analyzing experience. Upon completion of this seminar, participants should be able to:

• Demonstrate an understanding of the purpose of a meta-analysis – “What”
• Define a research question for their meta-analysis – “Why”
• Know how to perform a meta-analysis – “How”