![]() ![]() Meta-analysis now has become but one (important) method in integrative research synthesis. Over the past three decades, meta-analysts have conducted numerous investigations to examine the robustness of their techniques and have explored ways of refining these techniques, as well as examining many substantive uses in the field of education. There are several types of sensitivity analyses that can examine the dependence of the findings on the assumptions made about the nature of the data. They advocate explicit statement and justification of the decisions made at each stage of the research synthesis from hypothesis formulation, data selection, evaluation, analysis, and interpretation to public presentation. Meta-analysts have systematized the entire process of research synthesis by identifying the main tasks in each phase of a research synthesis, highlighting critical decision points within each phase, and allowing discussion of the relative merits of different choices at each decision point. This is followed by tests to identify substantive, methodological, or contextual study features that may be potential moderators of the effect size. After appropriate statistical adjustments of individual effect sizes according to their respective study features, a cumulative effect size can be calculated that is indicative of the direction and the magnitude of the overall trend of findings. To facilitate comparisons across studies, meta-analysis has allowed the bringing together of many seemingly diverse findings from individual primary research studies onto a common metric called an effect size. As noted in most texts on meta-analysis (many of which are listed in later sections), the authors observe that meta-analysts have played an important role in formalizing the methodology of research synthesis. Suri and Clarke 2009 comprehensively maps how meta-analysis and research synthesis methods have advanced in education. As the popularity and diversity of qualitative research methods have been increasing in educational research, more methodologically inclusive discussions of research synthesis methods are becoming popular as described in the later sections of this bibliography. Accordingly, this bibliography starts with a discussion of statistical methods of integrating research that parallels the dominance of quantitative research in education until the 1970s. Individual methods of research synthesis are discussed chronologically as they became popular in educational research. The final section cites examples of journals exclusively devoted to publishing research reviews and exemplary research synthesis with different methodologies. The eleventh section presents a methodologically inclusive account of current developments in research synthesis methods. As qualitative research is becoming popular in education, sophisticated discussions of issues associated with synthesizing qualitative research have also been published, some of which are cited in the tenth section. Citations in the ninth section illustrate critiques of systematic reviews. Several large organizations have been set up and software developed to support systematic reviews of research. The citations in the seventh section illustrate how meta-analysis has become very popular over time. ![]() The sixth section cites some of the most comprehensive books on research synthesis methods and includes contributions from key players of meta-analysis current at the time. Since then, a number of books have been published on research synthesis methods. As evident from the citations in the fifth section, it was in the 1980s when monographs exclusively devoted to research synthesis methods started to be published. Citations in the fourth section highlight early calls from educational researchers to recognize the process of synthesizing research as a scholarly endeavor in its own right. The third section cites references to illustrate how the concept of statistical integration of research findings dates back to early 20th century. This bibliography begins with this introduction followed by a general overview of meta-analysis and research synthesis methods in education.
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