UV9216 – General course in meta-analysis and systematic review

Course content

Meta-analyses and systematic reviews are becoming increasingly common in all fields of social science as a way of summarizing data from multiple studies. This course aims to develop a methodological understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of quantitative meta-analyses and systematic reviews. The course will provide a step-by-step guide for meta-analyses and present the various techniques used for analysing the data from a meta-analysis, including the techniques used to synthesize single and multiple effects. The course is also aimed at developing the participants’ understanding of the content, strengths, and weaknesses of reports or articles based on meta-analyses.

Learning outcome

The course will cover the following topics:

• Background for meta-analyses

• Research questions suited for meta-analyses

• Literature search

• Coding protocols

• Coding of data

• Statistical analysis of meta-analyses (including effect sizes, heterogeneity between studies, moderator analysis, and publication bias)

• Meta-analyses with multiple effect sizes (robust variance estimation, multilevel meta-analysis, multivariate meta-analysis)

• Reporting of meta-analyses

• Validity of meta-analyses

• Software with an emphasis on the R packages Robumeta and metaphor

Admission to the course

PhD candidates at The Faculty of Educational Sciences will be given priority. As a minimum requirement, all participants must hold at least a Master`s degree.

PhD candidates affiliated with the Faculty of Educational Sciences register through Studentweb. Others may apply through the application form published at the current semester site.

Registration deadline: Please see the current semester site.

Recommended previous knowledge

We recommend that the candidates are familiar with the concepts of means, standard deviations, correlations, regression, and the analysis of variance (ANOVA).

Overlapping courses

• 3 credits overlap with UV9212 – Meta-analyse (discontinued).
• 1 credits overlap with UV9216U.
• 1 credits overlap with UV9212U.

Teaching

The course covers 24 hours (distributed over 4 days with 6 hours of teaching each). Mandatory participation is 80%.

You will find the timetable at the semester webpage for the course.

Examination

4 credits for course participation and an approved paper (8-10 pages). 80% attendance is required.

Papers are to be submitted electronically in Canvas.

The focus of the paper could be to evaluate the quality of a meta-analysis in a paper, write draft for a prospero or other type of protocol, or write a method or results section for a meta-analysis.

Deadline for paper submission: The deadline will be published in the semester site.

Grading scale

Grading scale:

Grades are awarded on a pass/fail scale. Read more about the grading system.

More about examinations at UiO

• Use of sources and citations
• Special exam arrangements due to individual needs
• Withdrawal from an exam
• Illness at exams / postponed exams
• Explanation of grades and appeals
• Resitting an exam
• Cheating/attempted cheating

You will find further guides and resources at the web page on examinations at UiO.