Meta-evaluation of meta-analysis: ten appraisal questions for biologists

作者：Shinichi Nakagawa, Daniel W. A. Noble, Alistair M. Senior, Malgorzata Lagisz · 发表于：BMC Biology · 年份：2017 · DOI：10.1186/s12915-017-0357-7 · 被引用次数：587 · 研究领域：Meta-analysis and systematic reviews、Metabolomics and Mass Spectrometry Studies

Meta-analysis is a statistical procedure for analyzing the combined data from different studies, and can be a major source of concise up-to-date information. The overall conclusions of a meta-analysis, however, depend heavily on the quality of the meta-analytic process, and an appropriate evaluation of the quality of meta-analysis (meta-evaluation) can be challenging. We outline ten questions biologists can ask to critically appraise a meta-analysis. These questions could also act as simple and accessible guidelines for the authors of meta-analyses. We focus on meta-analyses using non-human species, which we term 'biological' meta-analysis. Our ten questions are aimed at enabling a biologist to evaluate whether a biological meta-analysis embodies 'mega-enlightenment', a 'mega-mistake', or something in between.