Single paper meta-analysis is unavoidable
Blakeley B. McShane, Ulf Böckenholt
Journal of Consumer Psychology · 2025 · Volume 35 · Issue 4
Abstract
We advocate that the multiple studies of a common phenomenon that are featured in a typical behavioral research paper be jointly analyzed to provide a statistical summary of the set of studies as a whole. Indeed, we view such single paper meta-analysis as unavoidable in typical behavioral research papers because (i) such papers feature multiple studies of a common phenomenon, (ii) such papers contain summaries of those studies, and (iii) statistical summaries of studies (i.e., meta-analyses) are superior to non-statistical summaries of them. Nonetheless, the current dominant practice is for such papers to feature separate statistical analyses of the data from each of the studies but to contain a non-statistical summary of the multiple studies rather than a statistical summary. We believe that this is regrettable and therefore aim to rectify matters. Consequently, we review some considerations about meta-analysis and statistical analysis more broadly; compare single paper meta-analysis to traditional meta-analysis and illustrate its benefits via a case study; discuss and dismiss concern about single paper meta-analysis; and discuss single paper meta-analysis and the review process.
Keywords
meta-analysis, methods
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