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This chapter discusses the methods of meta-analysis. It describes the procedures of meta-analysis: specifically, with respect to how they parallel classical scientific method, including problem formulation, sampling, classifying research information, data analysis, and data interpretation. Meta-analysis follows the activities found in “primary” research efforts. The actual techniques of meta-analysis have been comprehensively outlined and extended. Thus, aside from a description of findings in general, meta-analysis also can provide a description of how findings vary with respect to critical study features. Any rendering of “what the research says” probably involves some implicit generalizations made across studies that may be less systematic than the process found in meta-analysis. Future research is quite likely to remain a generally unorganized, decentralized, and nonstandardized process without regard to how it may fit together into a comprehensive whole. Research synthesis is ultimately shaped by the population of primary studies available and the manner in which those studies are selected for inclusion. |
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