Preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses in ecology and evolutionary biology: a PRISMA extension.

ABSTRACT: Since the early 1990s, ecologists and evolutionary biologists have aggregated primary research using meta-analytic methods to understand ecological and evolutionary phenomena. Meta-analyses can resolve long-standing disputes, dispel spurious claims, and generate new research questions. At their worst, however, meta-analysis publications are wolves in sheep's clothing: subjective with biased conclusions, hidden under coats of objective authority. Conclusions can be rendered unreliable by inappropriate statistical methods, problems with the methods used to select primary research, or problems within the primary research itself. Because of these risks, meta-analyses are increasingly conducted as part of systematic reviews, which use structured, transparent, and reproducible methods to collate

SUBMITTER: O'Dea RE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8518748 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature