TITLE:
Literature Review, Meta-Analysis, and Mega-Analysis in Ecological and Agricultural Sciences
AUTHORS:
Dafeng Hui, Navneet Kaur, Avedananda Ray, Lovish Kasrija, Qingxia Li
KEYWORDS:
Systematic Review, Quantitative Synthesis, Meta-Meta-Analysis, Second Order Meta-Analysis
JOURNAL NAME:
Agricultural Sciences,
Vol.14 No.4,
April
11,
2023
ABSTRACT: Literature review is an important component in any scientific research. In ecological and agricultural sciences, many studies have been conducted over years. With accumulation of scientific studies and published papers, it is critical to summarize and evaluate these previous research findings. Different literature review methods have been applied, including traditional qualitative literature review, quantitative meta-analysis, and more recently, mega-analysis, or meta-meta-analysis. Here we briefly describe these different approaches and draw attention to the recent development of data synthesis. Several case studies were used to illustrate the application of these methods in the ecological and agricultural sciences.