Jack L. Vevea (psy206ma@gmail.com)
(Please note that this is a special email address for this class; I will not monitor it after the conclusion of the class. My regular email is jvevea@ucmerced.edu.)
Social Science and Management Building 306a
Office hours: Tuesdays, 1:00-4:00, or by appointment.
Telephone: (209) 658-1706 (but email is usually a much quicker way to reach me)
Lipsey, M.W. & Wilson, D.B. (2001). Practical Meta-Analysis. Newbury Park, California: Sage Publications.
Assorted handouts and manuals (see course outline).
We will meet Tuesdays and Thursdays from 10:30 to 11:45 AM in room 272 of the Classroom Building.
Quantitative procedures (meta-analysis) for reviewing research findings; techniques for locating and coding research studies, calculating effect sizes, and analyzing study findings.
In the class, you will:
By the end of the class, you will be able to:
Your grade in this class will be based on a combination of your written class project (50%), in-class presentation of your project (30%), and participation in periodic in-class reporting of progress on the project (20%).
Students should be familiar with University policies on academic integrity. You will find relevant information here.
In the overall context of that policy, the following information is specific to this class:
Some assignments require that you work cooperatively with other class members. I strongly encourage cooperative work on the computational aspects of assignments or the class project. However, you should work independently on discussion and interpretation. The words you submit in your written assignments should be entirely your own.
UC Merced has a variety of services available to accommodate students with disabilities. Information is available here.
The course outline is somewhat less detailed than is usual for my syllabi. That is because this is a new course for me, and details of the timing and flow are difficult to predict. The outline will be updated as we proceed through the semester.
No class meeting.
Initial class meeting: introductions, overview of the class, using the class web page, discussion of the class project. History of meta-analysis. Problems with narrative reviews and vote counting. Time and costs. Gathering studies.
Reading: L & W Chapters 1-2.
Assignment One: write up the equivalent of what you just said in class: your program, your interests, your advisor, etc.
Here are student responses.
Introduction to R and metafor. Initial discussion of project ideas. Coding manual and process.
Reading: L & W Chapter 4.
Assignment Two: By Sunday, September 11, send to the class email account a brief description of the meta-analysis you are contemplating for this class. Include a clear statement of the question of interest, and present some preliminary evidence that quantitative studies of this issue exist (probably from a search of bibliographic database such as psycinfo). Explain why this topic interests you. (Remember that your assignments will be shared in class. So, for example, you might not want to explain that you are interested in studies of recidivism among convicted axe murderers because you are a convicted axe murderer.)
Here are student responses.
Discussion of draft coding manuals. Inter-rater reliability.
Reading: Handout on inter-rater reliability (found here).
Effect sizes.
Reading: L & W Chapter 3.
Here are final project descriptions with comments added in class.
Assignment Three is available here. See the assignment text for details of due dates, but be aware that the first installment is due this week.
Preliminary analyses. Graphics. Dependent effect sizes.
Reading: L & W Chapters 5-6.
Combining effect sizes with fixed- and random-effects models.
Reading: L & W Chapter 7.
Here is a link to a pdf showing formulas for conditional variances for various non-categorical effect sizes.
Combining effect sizes with fixed- and random-effects models (continued). Diagnostics, assessing influence.Reading: L & W Chapter 8.
Assessing moderators of effect size. Multilevel models.
Reading: Poke around in the metafor manual.
Publication bias.
Reading: Poke around in the weightr manual.
Other sensitivity analyses. Power.
Reporting standards. Discussion of problems and issues in class projects.
Reading: APA reporting standards (handouts here).
Discussion of problems and issues in class projects. Place holder to recognize the fact that we will undoubtedly be behind schedule at this point.
Class and office hours cancelled.
Thanksigiving holiday; no class meeting.
Presentation of class projects.
Presentation of class projects.