Cover Image
QR Code

Meta-Analyzing Apples and Oranges: How to Make Applesauce Instead of Fruit Salad.

This essay attempts to describe the apples and oranges problem in meta-analyses. Essentially, some meta-analyses combine original studies of various variables that are not the same pairs of variables. Metaphorically, they meta-analyze the effects of fruit when they should conduct separate meta-analy...

Full description

Published in:Human Communication Research Vol. 46; no. 2/3; pp. 322 - 334
Main Author: Carpenter, Christopher J
Format: Article
Published: Oxford University Press / USA Apr-Jul2020
Subjects:
Fruit salads
Sampling errors
Fruit
Online Access:View this record in EBSCOhost
fields @attributes:
  recordID: 1
pdfLink:
plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ssf&AN=143652035&site=ehost-live
header:
  @attributes:
    shortDbName: ssf
    uiTerm: 143652035
    longDbName: Social Sciences Full Text (H.W. Wilson)
    uiTag: AN
  controlInfo:
    bkinfo:
    jinfo:
      jid:
        03603989
        HUC
      jtl: Human Communication Research
      issn: 03603989
      maglogo: N
    pubinfo:
      dt: Apr-Jul2020
      vid: 46
      iid: 2/3
      pid: 622
      pub: Oxford University Press / USA
    artinfo:
      ui:
        143652035
        10.1093/hcr/hqz018
      ppf: 322
      ppct: 12
      formats:
      tig:
        atl: Meta-Analyzing Apples and Oranges: How to Make Applesauce Instead of Fruit Salad.
      aug:
        au: Carpenter, Christopher J
        affil: Department of Communication , Western Illinois University, Macomb, IL 61455 USA
      su:
        Fruit salads
        Sampling errors
        Fruit
      sug:
        subj:
          Fruit and Vegetable Markets
          Other Food Crops Grown Under Cover
          Support activities for crop production
          Crop Harvesting, Primarily by Machine
          Fresh fruit and vegetable merchant wholesalers
          Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Merchant Wholesalers
          Fruit salads
          Sampling errors
          Fruit
      ab: This essay attempts to describe the apples and oranges problem in meta-analyses. Essentially, some meta-analyses combine original studies of various variables that are not the same pairs of variables. Metaphorically, they meta-analyze the effects of fruit when they should conduct separate meta-analyses of apples and oranges. This practice is inconsistent with the assumptions behind the meta-analytic formulae concerning sampling error and makes meta-analytic estimates difficult to interpret. Meta-analysis teams are advised to justify their choices and types of evidence are described to assist researchers and reviewers in assessing and justifying when constructs can and cannot be combined together in a meta-analysis.
      pubtype: Academic Journal
      doctype: Article
      src: R
    language: English
    refInfo:
    copyright:
      @attributes:
        flag: N
    holdings:
      @attributes:
        islocal: N