Research synthesis is the practice of systematically distilling and integrating data from many studies in order to draw more reliable conclusions about a given research issue. When the first edition of "The Handbook of Research Synthesis and Meta-Analysis" was published in 1994, it quickly became the definitive reference for conducting…

When the first edition of "The Handbook of Research Synthesis" was published in 1994, it quickly became the definitive reference for researchers conducting meta-analyses of existing research in both the social and biological sciences. In this fully revised second edition, editors Harris Cooper, Larry Hedges, and Jeff Valentine present…

This occasional paper introduces the methods of research synthesis and meta-analysis to researchers and consumers of research in the field of adult learning and literacy. To begin, the first section of the paper defines key terms and offers a brief history of how the methodologies developed. The second section provides a conceptualization of…

This study was conducted to investigate the equivalence of scores from paper-and-pencil (P&P) tests and computerized tests (CTs) through meta-analysis of primary studies using both kinds of tests. For this synthesis, 51 primary studies were selected, resulting in 226 effect sizes. The first synthesis was a typical meta-analysis that treated…

Methods for meta-analysis have evolved dramatically since Gene Glass first proposed the term in 1976. Since that time statistical and nonstatistical aspects of methodology for meta-analysis have been developing at a steady pace. This guide is an attempt to provide a practical introduction to rigorous procedures in the meta-analysis of social…