1. The Question The first step is deciding on the question to be asked:
E.g., Shadish and Baldwin 2005: What are the effects of behavioral marital therapy (BMT) compared to no treatment?
The question initially need not be too specific—better to be inclusive at first and then exclude later.
You may discover operationalizations of constructs that you did not anticipate
Broader inclusion helps explore generalization

2. The Literature Search: What?
Inclusion Exclusion Criteria
Which treatments, people, outcomes? For example, in Shadish’s meta-analysis of BMT:
Including Cognitive Behavioral?
Effects on anything? Just on divorce or the Marital Attitude Survey?
Excluding studies of “enrichment”?
Which designs: e.g., RCTs only?
Language restrictions?
Limited to certain years?
Both published and unpublished sources?

3. The Literature Search: Where?
The Bibliographies of Past Meta-Analyses and Literature Reviews.
The Bibliography of every pertinent study retrieved
Standard Electronic Databases
E.g., PubMed, Web of Science, PsycInfo, Dissertation Abstracts International
What keywords, how far back?
Hand Searches of Journals (Recent Years)
Funding agencies for final reports.
A serious search for unpublished studies?
Contacts with Experts
Registries of Studies Initiated
Archives of convention programs and papers
Keep a record of keywords used:
Keep a flow chart and record of inclusions-exclusions:

4. Example
Saab et al “Oral Antibiotic Prophylaxis Reduces spontaneous Bacterial Peritonities Occurrence and Improves Short-Term Survival in Cirrhosis: A Meta-Analysis”
8 Randomized Trials
647 Patients
Search results reported in flow chart

5. Sample Flow Chart

6. Most Common Types of Effects
Correlations (probably transformed)
Standardized mean differences
Risk ratios
Odds ratios
Lots more to say about these later

7. Fixed- and Random-Effects Meta-Analysis
Simple fixed-effects MA
Fixed-effects MA with moderators
Simple random-effects MA
Random-effects MA with moderators (also known as “mixed-effects meta-analysis”)

8. Most Common Types of Meta-Analysis
Fixed-effects MA: fixed effects.pdf
Random-effects MA: random effects.pdf
Choice of fixed- versus random-effects analysis
(traditional and WRONG) Heterogeneity tests
What question are you asking? (universe of generalization)
Almost always, the correct choice is a prior random-effects model (controversial)

9. Illustration, and Introduction of metafor
Teacher expectancy data (Raudenbush and Bryk)
Reading data into R
Acquiring the metafor package
Simple analyses using metafor
What is metafor actually doing?