Course  »  Who should take this course

Basic course

This workshop is intended for researchers, clinicians, educators, statisticians, graduate students, and anyone with an interest in understanding or performing meta-analyses. Our approach is primarily conceptual rather than mathematical, and participants with only one or two statistics classes in their background should be able to fully understand the materials.

Advanced course

The main prerequisite for the advanced course is the basic course.  The first two modules in the advanced course deal with subgroup analysis and meta-regression.  To fully understand these modules, you will need to be familiar with analysis of variance and multiple regression in primary studies.

Is this course too basic for me?

Probably not. While the course is geared to researchers, statisticians who attend our workshops invariably report that they found the course well worth their time. The overwhelming majority of meta-analyses contain some serious mistakes. You will learn what these mistakes are and how to avoid them in your own work.  Researchers and clinicians with relatively little statistical background should be able to follow all materials without any problem. At the same time, statisticians are likely to have a series of "Aha" moments and walk away with a thorough grasp of the statistics underlying the concepts.

Is the course too advanced for me?

Probably not. The course assumes only basic knowledge of research techniques and no knowledge of meta-analysis. The course is intended for researchers rather than statisticians. I focus on a conceptual approach to each issue and use practical examples from published analyses. Statistical formulas are typically addressed separately and explained in a way that focuses on the logic, rather than the math.