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Indiscriminate Data Aggregations in Meta-Analysis: A Cause for Concern Among Policy Makers and Social ScientistsUniversity of Southern California Whether you are a policy maker or social scientist, you are slowly being drowned in a sea of ofteninconsistent research data. Proponents of meta-analysis claim that such data can be objectivelyand usefully summarized for you. The author notes how the assumptions of the meta-analyticmodel preclude the synthesis of experimental data (which has a clear cause-and-effect logic)with quasi-experimental and/or nonexperimental data (both of which lack such clarity). Yet inthe author's review of 64 recent meta-analytic articles, 11 were found to improperly make suchaggregations. Why? The author shows how the guidance provided by the leading proponents ofmeta-analysis either blurs the distinction or is misleading.
Key Words: meta-analysis randomized experiment quasi-experiment
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