Monte Carlo studies of several fixed-effects methods for combining and comparing correlation matrices have shown that two refinements improve estimation and inference substantially. With rare exception, however, these simulations have involved homogeneous data analyzed using conditional meta-analytic procedures. The present study builds on…

In 2 Monte Carlo studies of fixed- and random-effects meta-analysis for correlations, A. P. Field (2001) ostensibly evaluated Hedges-Olkin-Vevea Fisher-[zeta] and Schmidt-Hunter Pearson-r estimators and tests in 120 conditions. Some authors have cited those results as evidence not to meta-analyze Fisher-[zeta] correlations, especially with…

The originally proposed multivariate meta-analysis approach for correlation matrices--analyze Pearson correlations, with each study's observed correlations replacing their population counterparts in its conditional-covariance matrix--performs poorly. Two refinements are considered: Analyze Fisher Z-transformed correlations, and substitute better…