Research Synthesis and Meta-Analysis: A Step-by-Step Approach

Offering practical advice on how to conduct a synthesis of research in the social, behavioral, and medical sciences, the Fourth Edition of Harris Cooper bestselling text is invaluable to both first-time literature reviewers and experts looking for lucid discussions of complex issues. Reorganized and revised throughout, this text is written in plain language with numerous examples. Each chapter concludes with exercises for use as class projects.

Key Features

• Presents an updated version of Cooper’s easy-to-follow seven-step research synthesis process
• Highlights the critical questions to ask about synthesis methodology at each step and the identification of “best practices”
• Contains two new chapters, “Gathering Information From Studies” (Chapter 4) and “Interpreting the Evidence” (Chapter 7), giving expanded treatments on gathering information from studies and interpreting the evidence from a research synthesis
• Provides completely updated material on techniques for searching the literature, with an emphasis on new technologies and the Internet
• Includes a discussion of recent advances and issues in statistical techniques for meta-analyses
• Offers new standards for reporting meta-analyses results
• Incorporates new research syntheses drawn from the fields of education, social/developmental psychology, and health throughout the book

Intended Audience

This text is appropriate for use in upper-level undergraduate and graduate courses in Intermediate/Advanced Research Methods, Applied Research Methods, and Intermediate/Advanced Quantitative Research offered in departments of psychology, education, public policy, social work, nursing, and other social science disciplines.