The question of what do to with a body qualitative study reports on particular topic has attracted many nurses the promise meta-synthesis. Conceptualizing it as potentially analogous quantitative meta-analysis, they feel allure generating conclusive evidence that includes kinds subject and experiential phenomena explicitly written out both population-based clinical measurement studies. However,...

Abstract Background Cesarean section (CS) rates have been increasing globally. Iran has one of the highest CS in world (47.9%). This review was conducted to assess prevalence and reasons for women’s, family members’, health professionals’ preferences Iran. Methods findings In this mixed-methods systematic review, we searched MEDLINE/PubMed, Embase, CINAHL, POPLINE, PsycINFO, Global Health Libra...

We introduce the series of 7 tutorial papers on evidence synthesis methods for decision making, based on the Technical Support Documents in Evidence Synthesis prepared for the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) Decision Support Unit. Although oriented to NICE's Technology Appraisal process, which examines new pharmaceutical products in a cost-effectiveness framework, t...

Indirect and mixed treatment comparison (MTC) approaches to synthesis are Abstract logical extensions of more established meta-analysis methods. They have great potential for estimating the comparative effectiveness of multiple treatments using an evidence base of trials that individually do not compare all treatment options. Connected networks of evidence can be synthesized simultaneously to p...

Research on methods of meta-analysis (the synthesis of related study results) has dealt with many simple study indices, but less attention has been paid to the issue of summarizing regression slopes. In part this is because of the many complications that arise when real sets of regression models are accumulated. We outline the complexities involved in synthesizing slopes, describe existing meth...

In this paper we suggest an architecture that would integrate various methods for synthesis of a software process model based on domain knowledge about artifacts, process fragments, tools, and limited process execution observations. Our approach suggests using a meta-process specification for integration of various process synthesis methods to provide a generalized process model. We also propos...

BACKGROUND Network meta-analysis methods extend the standard pair-wise framework to allow simultaneous comparison of multiple interventions in a single statistical model. Despite published work on network meta-analysis mainly focussing on the synthesis of aggregate data, methods have been developed that allow the use of individual patient-level data specifically when outcomes are dichotomous or...

BACKGROUND Meta-analysis is intended as a tool for the objective synthesis of evidence across a literature, in order to obtain the best evidence as to whether or not an association or effect is robust. However, as the use of meta-analysis has proliferated it has become increasingly clear that the results of a meta-analysis can be critically sensitive to methodological and analytical choices, so...

Research synthesis methods provide meaningful quantitative data through systematic review of the research literature and translation of these findings into practice implications. Meta-analysis has been the gold standard for translation of research findings into practice. Decision analysis has emerged as an alternative to and extension of meta-analysis. Examples, contrasting the application of m...

Rapid growth in scientific output requires methods for quantitative synthesis of prior research, yet current meta-analysis methods limit aggregation to studies with similar designs. Here we describe and validate Generalized Model Aggregation (GMA), which allows researchers to combine prior estimated models of a phenomenon into a quantitative meta-model, while imposing few restrictions on the st...