Overview of Meta-Analysis, Part 5c (of 7): Primary Meta-Analyses (cont.)

This is the last of three posts in Part 5 of my overview of meta-analysis.  In Part 5a I described six conventional meta-analytic models for effect-size (ES) estimates, and in Part 5b I described estimation and inference for two of those models without covariates.  In this post I’ll extend the methods of Part 5b to two models with covariates and comment on extensions and other variants of these models and procedures, to hint at the wide variety of situations that arise in meta-analysis.  In Parts 6 and 7 of the overview, I’ll address follow-up procedures and ways to report results, respectively.
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Overview of Meta-Analysis, Part 5a (of 7): Primary Meta-Analyses

The previous four parts of this seven-part overview of meta-analysis focused on obtaining data and preparing them for the central task addressed in this fifth part: meta-analyzing effect-size (ES) estimates, which I’ll cover in three subparts focused on meta-analytic models (Part 5a) and procedures for fitting them to ESs (Parts 5b and 5c).  In the last two parts (6 and 7) I’ll address follow-up techniques to assess potential problems with these primary analyses, as well as useful ways to report these analyses’ results.  (Topics for all seven parts of this overview are listed in Part 1.)
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Overview of Meta-Analysis, Part 4 (of 7): Data Exploration

This seven-part overview’s first three parts focused on collecting data used in meta-analyses: estimates of effect size (ES), sample sizes or conditional variances (CVs) to quantify ES sampling error or (im)precision, and ES features.  The overview’s subsequent four parts address analyzing these data and presenting results.  In this fourth part I begin by describing preliminary analyses that can help identify errors and issues to attend to in primary analyses. (Part 1 of this overview lists the topics for all seven parts.)
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Overview of Meta-Analysis, Part 3 (of 7): Effect-Size Features

In Part 2 of this seven-part overview, I described obtaining the sample size(s) or conditional variance (CV) associated with an effect-size (ES) estimate to quantify this estimate’s sampling error or (im)precision.  Here in Part 3 I’ll address coding features linked to ESs.  Whereas this overview’s first three parts focus on collecting data used in a research synthesis, its subsequent four parts will address meta-analyzing these data and presenting results.  (Part 1 lists the topics for all seven parts.)
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