Meta-evaluation of meta-analysis: ten appraisal questions for biologists

被引：0
作者：
Shinichi Nakagawa
Daniel W. A. Noble
Alistair M. Senior
Malgorzata Lagisz
机构：
[1] Evolution & Ecology Research Centre and School of Biological,
[2] Earth and Environmental Sciences,undefined
[3] University of New South Wales,undefined
[4] Diabetes and Metabolism Division,undefined
[5] Garvan Institute of Medical Research,undefined
[6] Charles Perkins Centre,undefined
[7] University of Sydney,undefined
[8] School of Mathematics and Statistics,undefined
[9] University of Sydney,undefined
来源：
BMC Biology | / 15卷
关键词：
Effect size; Biological importance; Non-independence; Meta-regression; Meta-research; Publication bias; Quantitative synthesis; Reporting bias; Statistical significance; Systematic review;
D O I：
暂无
中图分类号：
学科分类号：
摘要：
Meta-analysis is a statistical procedure for analyzing the combined data from different studies, and can be a major source of concise up-to-date information. The overall conclusions of a meta-analysis, however, depend heavily on the quality of the meta-analytic process, and an appropriate evaluation of the quality of meta-analysis (meta-evaluation) can be challenging. We outline ten questions biologists can ask to critically appraise a meta-analysis. These questions could also act as simple and accessible guidelines for the authors of meta-analyses. We focus on meta-analyses using non-human species, which we term ‘biological’ meta-analysis. Our ten questions are aimed at enabling a biologist to evaluate whether a biological meta-analysis embodies ‘mega-enlightenment’, a ‘mega-mistake’, or something in between.
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