Methods of Meta-Analysis: Correcting Error and Bias in Research Findings

Meta-analysis is arguably the most important methodological innovation in the social and behavioral sciences in the last 25 years. Developed to offer researchers an informative account of which methods are most useful in integrating research findings across studies, this book will enable the reader to apply, as well as understand, meta-analytic methods. Rather than taking an encyclopedic approach, the authors have focused on carefully developing those techniques that are most applicable to social science research, and have given a general conceptual description of more complex and rarely-used techniques. Fully revised and updated, Methods of Meta-Analysis, Second Edition is the most comprehensive text on meta-analysis available today.

Most methods of meta-analysis focus on describing and summarizing the results of studies in a research literature, but for Hunter (retired, psychology, Michigan State U.) and Schmidt (management and organization, U. of Iowa), the purpose of meta-analysis is to estimate what the results would have been had all the studies been conducted without methodological limitations or flaws. Since the 1990 edition, meta-analysis has become widely accepted and practiced, and their revision incorporates the new breadth. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

John E. (Jack) Hunter (1939 -- 2002) was a professor in the Department of Psychology at Michigan State University. He received his Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Illinois. Jack co-authored two books and authored or co-authored over 200 articles and book chapters on a wide variety of methodological topics, including confirmatory and exploratory factor analysis, measurement theory and methods, statistics, and research methods. He also published numerous research articles on such substantive topics as intelligence, attitude change, the relation between attitudes and behavior, validity generalization, differential validity/selection fairness, and selection utility. Much of his research on attitudes was in the field of communications, and the American Communications Association named a research award in his honor. Professor Hunter received the Distinguished Scientific Award for Contributions to Applied Psychology (joint with Frank Schmidt), and the Distinguished Scientific Contributions Award from the Society for Industrial/Organizational Psychology (SIOP) (also joint with Frank Schmidt). He was a Fellow of the American Psychological Association, the American Psychological Society, and of SIOP, and was a past president of the Midwestern Society for Multivariate Experimental Psychology. 

Frank L.Schmidt is the Ralph Sheets Professor in the Department of Management and Organization in the Tippie College of Business at the University of Iowa. He received his Ph.D. in industrial/organizational psychology from Purdue University and has been on the faculties of Michigan State and George Washington Universities. He has authored or co-authored several books and over 150 articles and book chapters on measurement, statistics, research methods, individual differences, and personnel selection. He headed a research program in the U.S. Office of Personnel Management in Washington, D.C. for 11 years, during which he published numerous research studies in personnel psychology, primarily with John Hunter. Their research on the generalizability of employment selection method validities led to the development of the meta-analysis methods presented in this book. Professor Schmidt has received the Distinguished Scientific Award for Contributions to Applied Psychology from the American Psychological Association (joint with John Hunter), and the Distinguished Scientific Contributions Award from the Society for Industrial/Organizational Psychology (SIOP) (also joint with John Hunter). He has also received the Distinguished Career Award for Contributions to Human Resources and the Distinguished Career Achievement Award for Contributions to Research Methods, both from the Academy of Management. He is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association, the American Psychological Society, and SIOP, and is past president of Division 5 (Measurement, Statistics, & Evaluation) of APA.