Common mistakes in meta-analysis and how to avoid them

Among the thousands of meta-analyses that have been published over the past several decades, there are a number of mistakes that appear on a fairly regular basis. This book outlines the most common mistakes, using examples in medicine, epidemiology, education, psychology, criminal justice, and other fields. For each, it explains why it is a mistake, the implications of the mistake, and how to correct the mistake. The book is intended primarily for researchers, and so the discussion is conceptual rather than statistical. The examples show the real-world consequences of the mistakes, explaining (for example) how the mistakes can lead to the adoption of interventions that may actually be harmful in some populations. The book includes a section with examples that show how to report the results of an analysis correctly. These examples can serve as templates for reporting an analysis, while avoiding the mistakes discussed in earlier chapters. The book’s author is the co-author of the text Introduction to Meta-Analysis, the best-selling text in this field. In the current volume he draws on his experience teaching meta-analysis to thousands of researchers as well as his experience as a reviewer of meta-analyses for numerous journals.