Modern meta-analyses do more than combine the effect sizes of a series
of similar studies. Meta-analyses are currently increasingly applied for
any analysis beyond the primary analysis of studies, and for the
analysis of big data. This 26-chapter book was written for
nonmathematical professionals of medical and health care, in the first
place, but, in addition, for anyone involved in any field involving
scientific research. The authors have published over twenty innovative
meta-analyses from the turn of the century till now. This edition will
review the current state of the art, and will use for that purpose the
methodological aspects of the authors' own publications, in addition to
other relevant methodological issues from the literature.
Are there alternative works in the field? Yes, there are, particularly
in the field of psychology. Psychologists have invented meta-analyses in
1970, and have continuously updated methodologies. Although very
interesting, their work, just like the whole discipline of psychology,
is rather explorative in nature, and so is their focus to meta-analysis.
Then, there is the field of epidemiologists. Many of them are from the
school of angry young men, who publish shocking news all the time, and
JAMA and other publishers are happy to publish it. The reality is, of
course, that things are usually not as bad as they seem. Finally, some
textbooks, written by professional statisticians, tend to use software
programs with miserable menu programs and requiring lots of syntax to be
learnt. This is prohibitive to clinical and other health professionals.
The current edition is the first textbook in the field of meta-analysis
entirely written by two clinical scientists, and it consists of many
data examples and step by step analyses, mostly from the authors' own
clinical research.
