meta analysis design research

meta analysis design research

Paper details:

• A meta-analysis considers research aligned with a topic over a long period of time. Some of the most thorough meta-analyses work with data over a 100 year range or span of time. These studies are well received by every field since they provide the historical overview of what has happened relating to various topics. In the truest sense of the term, meta-analyses are the most scholarly contribution researchers can make to their field. These are very cost-effective works as well. The cost is in duplication and storage of the large amount of research studies that serve as the data set. You don’t have to travel and conduct field work–you can do this in your campus (or even local) library!
(No attached slides this week)
For this component of your folio, you can make your own rubric for assessing the value/worth of the study you find (see the syllabus, I am only requiring one of these as a sample). Key to look for in a meta-analysis is the author’s/authors’ reporting of Effect Sizes for each of the studies (datum points) used and an overall compiled Effect Size discussion for the period of time for which the meta-analysis is being conducted. These are critical to know as a scholarly reader. Without effect sizes, you have no indication of how worthwhile the studies individually were (are) or how much validity can be put in the meta-analysis as a whole.
*And, another thing to watch for is if one particular author’s work is overweighted in the meta-analysis (especially the case if the author of the meta-analysis is the same scholar being overly focused upon!). This does happen. It is definitely something to be wary of as you are examining the meta-analysis.

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