Meta-analyses have become the gold standard for synthesizing evidence from multiple clinical trials, and they are especially useful when outcomes are rare or adverse since individual trials often lack sufficient power to detect a treatment effect. However, when zero events are observed in one or both treatment arms in a trial, commonly used…

In Bayesian random-effects meta-analysis, the use of weakly informative prior distributions is of particular benefit in cases where only a few studies are included, a situation often encountered in health technology assessment (HTA). Suggestions for empirical prior distributions are available in the literature but it is unknown whether these are…

We have entered an era in which scientific evidence increasingly informs research practice and policy. As there is an exponential increase in the use of single-case experimental designs (SCEDs) to evaluate intervention effectiveness, there is accumulating evidence available for quantitative synthesis. Consequently, there is a growing interest in…

In evidence-based practice, new topics generally only have a few studies available for synthesis. As a result, the evidence of such meta-analyses raised substantial concerns. We investigated the robustness of the evidence from these earliest studies. Real-world data from the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (CDSR) were collected. We…

International teaching assistants (ITAs) have a prominent role in the internationalisation of higher education (IHE). Although ITAs are considered important actors in IHE and ITA programs have a relatively long history, there is a scarcity of review studies on empirical research focusing on ITAs. This qualitative metasynthesis explores the…

Meta-analyses and structured reviews provide a synthesis of the results of multiple studies, thus offering unique contributions to informing practice and advancing science in the field of school psychology. High-quality meta-analyses and structured reviews include a review and summary of the extant studies and highlight clear directions for future…

In fields (such as population health) where randomised trials are often lacking, systematic reviews (SRs) can harness diversity in study design, settings and populations to assess the evidence for a putative causal relationship. SRs may incorporate causal assessment approaches (CAAs), sometimes called 'causal reviews', but there is currently no…

In this brief report, we present a scoping review of 31 second language (L2) vocabulary research syntheses published in the Web of Science from January 1990 to May 2022. The purpose of this undertaking was to understand what L2 vocabulary research synthesizers have aggregated and the investigative foci they intended to address. It was observed…

Randomised controlled trials of cancer treatments typically report progression free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) outcomes. Existing methods to synthesise evidence on PFS and OS either rely on the proportional hazards assumption or make parametric assumptions which may not capture the diverse survival curve shapes across studies and…

Purpose: This study aims to support researchers and practitioners in finding suitable instruments for future research studies and organizational quality assessments. Design/methodology/approach: Employees' success of learning at work is strongly influenced by the quality of the workplace learning environment. In the recent decades growing effort…

As the empirical literature in educational technology continues to grow, meta-analyses are increasingly being used to synthesise research to inform practice. However, not all meta-analyses are equal. To examine their evolution over the past 30 years, this study systematically analysed the quality of 52 meta-analyses (1988-2017) on educational…

Inconsistent reporting of critical facets of classroom interventions and their related impact evaluations hinders the field's ability to describe and synthesize the existing evidence base. In this essay, we present a set of reporting guidelines intended to steer authors of classroom intervention studies toward providing more systematic reporting…

This study aims to identify emerging trends in immersive learning research in teacher education in order to provide researchers with insights into research themes and issues for further exploration. Specifically, the researchers scrutinised the research methods, research outcomes, and technologies employed in immersive learning research in teacher…

This synthesis aims to see the effects of Socio-scientific Issues-Based Instruction (SSI) on the academic achievement of students in Turkey and to help shape future studies on this topic. A mixed-research synthesis method was employed in this study. As a result of the data searching process, 12 studies with quantitative data and 6 studies with…

Students with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD) exhibit problem behaviors that potentially result in lower performance in reading and related content areas. Researchers and policy makers have increasingly emphasized the need for evidence-based practices (EBPs) in reading. However, conclusions made regarding the effectiveness of the…