Understanding meta-analyses. A consumer's guide to aims, problems, evaluation and developments.

Autor/in	Plath, Ingrid
Titel	Understanding meta-analyses. A consumer's guide to aims, problems, evaluation and developments.
Quelle	Baden-Baden: Nomos (1992), 136 S. PDF als Volltext kostenfreie Datei Link als defekt meldenVerfügbarkeit
Reihe	Studien zum Umgang mit Wissen. 7
Beigaben	Tabellen
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	online; gedruckt; Monographie
ISBN	3-7890-2300-0
URN	urn:nbn:de:0111-opus-7367
Schlagwörter	Empirische Forschung; Evaluation; Evaluationsforschung; Forschungsmethode; Metaanalyse; Methode; Reliabilität; Validität; Methodik; Wissenschaftsbewertung; Wissenschaftskritik; Analyseverfahren; Funktion (Struktur); Kritik; Qualität
Abstract	In recent years the quality of empirical research reviews has become an issue of major concern. One of the approaches developed to improve reviewing practices is meta-analysis. This quantitative approach to integrating empirical research findings involves numerous statistical techniques and unique methodological issues. Like primary empirical research, meta-anlyses should meet rigorous scientific standards and their quality should be evaluated before using the results. Consequently, to assess the quality of a meta-analytic study, consumers need special information. As most books and articles on the subject concern the complex methodological and statistical issues involved, having been written mainly for potential conductors of meta-analyses, the needs of the potential consumers have largely been left unaccounted for. This book intends filling the gap. Intentionally ignoring the more specific technical aspects, readers are presented with a general introduction to the aims and problems of meta-analyses, detailed enough to enable them to understand the critical issues involved, to evaluate the quality of meta-analytic reports and to use the presented conclusions circumspectly. Based on this general introduction recommendations for evaluating meta-analyses are formulated and used to evaluate how the aims and known limitations of the approach have been handled up to now in a sample of 48 meta-analyses. As yet, the high standards demanded by the meta-analysts themselves are not being fulfilled. There is no want of suggestion on how to improve the quality and the practical relevance of meta-analyses. Some of these are summarized both to show consumers what they could at best expect to gain from a meta-analysis and to encourage conductors of meta-analyses to use more of these to enhance the potential utility of their work. (DIPF/Orig.).
Erfasst von	DIPF \| Leibniz-Institut für Bildungsforschung und Bildungsinformation, Frankfurt am Main
Update	2006/5