“Methods for Second Order Meta-Analysis and Illustrative Applications”, 2013-07-01 (; backlinks; similar):
Second order meta-analysis is to determine second order sampling error variance.
Second order meta-analysis is useful in conducting cross-cultural meta-analyses.
Second order meta-analysis is useful in conducting meta-analytic moderator analyses.
This paper presents methods for second order meta-analysis along with several illustrative applications.
A second order meta-analysis is a meta-analysis of a number of statistically independent and methodologically comparable first order meta-analyses examining ostensibly the same relationship in different contexts. ‘First order meta-analysis’ greatly reduces sampling error variance but does not eliminate it. The residual sampling error is called ‘second order sampling error’. The purpose of a second order meta-analysis is to estimate the proportion of the variance in mean meta-analytic effect-sizes across multiple first order meta-analyses attributable to second order sampling error and to use this information to improve accuracy of estimation for each first order meta-analytic estimate.
We present equations and methods based on the random-effects model for second order meta-analysis for 3 situations and 3 empirical applications of second order meta-analysis to illustrate the potential value of these methods to the pursuit of cumulative knowledge.
[Keywords: meta-analysis, second order meta-analysis, research synthesis, sampling error]