Review
Meta-analysis: synthesizing research findings in ecology and evolution

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0169-5347(00)89073-4Get rights and content

Abstract

The growing number of empirical studies performed in ecology and evolution creates a need for quantitative summaries of research domains to generate higher-order conclusions about general trends and patterns. Recent developments In meta-analysis (the area of statistics that is designed for summarizing and analyzing multiple independent studies) have opened up new and exciting possibilities. Unlike more traditional qualitative and narrative reviews, meta-analysis allows powerful quantitative analyses of the magnitude of effects and has a high degree of objectivity because it is based on a standardized set of statistical procedures. The first pioneering applications in ecology and evolution demonstrate that meta-analysis is both tractable and powerful.

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