Hello, Neetu,

The scope of your question is too broad to be answered here. Please kindly narrow down to the issue you encounter.

Sincerely yours

 Thanks Victor. In medicine studies, meta analysis has been used widely. If you have come across to a good study that could be used as a template, pl share reference.

Dr.  Yadav, this is the one I have used over the years. It is the standard reference used and is open source. The article lists step by step the universally accepted methodology which should be followed.

Moher D, Liberati A, Tetzlaff J, Altman DG. Preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses: the PRISMA statement. PLoS medicine. 2009;6(7):e1000097.

Hope it helps,

Mac Camacho

Hello. 

Dear Netuu. I recomend you to visit equatornetwork website. There you can find report and protocol guidelines recommended for all study types. 

I recommend you read these references: 

1. http://www.bmj.com/content/349/bmj.g7647 Prisma -P. Is a guideline to make a protocol for a systematic review. 

2. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/book/10.1002/9780470743386 This is a Book about statistical methods in meta-analysis by Borenstein et al. You will have to pay for it

3. http://www.nap.edu/catalog/13059/finding-what-works-in-health-care-standards-for-systematic-reviews This is a guideline from the Institute of Medicine from the National Academies on how to perform a systematic review. This book is recommended by Jhon Hopkins Proffesor Kay Dickersin an Expert in the field. 

Just for the record. You must remember that a meta-analysis is part of a systematic review. A systematic review is a type of study where you apply specific methods for a SYSTEMATIC approach to the published and unpublished literature on an specific topic following pre-specified steps. A systematic review may or not may include a meta-analysis but that depends on the heterogeneity of the articles you found. 

Best. 

Ramiro Manzano Nunez

Universidad del Valle

Cali-Colombia

very useful details....thanks Ramiro manzano nuñez and Macario Camacho.

Hi,

The following link contains a series of comprehensive online training modules in systematic review and meta-analysis provided by the Cochrane Collaboration: http://training.cochrane.org/path/introduction-systematic-reviews-pathway

These modules are free. Good to try them out. 

Best,

NM

Hello,

Meta-analyses are an important component of systematic reviews but are not vital for the conduction of a systematic review. Reason being, if you are looking for different outcomes and reviewing papers that measured different outcomes using different tools then the conduction of a meta-analysis is not possible. For you to conduct a meta-analysis you need to include studies that used similar tools to measure similar outcomes. This is a valid enough reason not to conduct a meta-analysis but still get your paper published especially if the topic is poorly researched and the papers addressing your topic are scanty.

I hope this helps and good luck

M

From my experience conducting systematic reviews, I find them "more convenient" to conduct as, Mohammed suggested, conducting meta-analyses requires very specific criteria. But, no, I have never used meta-analyses in my review work.

My experience on using "meta-analysis" for systematic literature review.

Pharmacological Reports

Volume 68, Issue 5, October 2016, Pages 903–912

Clinical efficacy and safety of eperisone for low back pain: A systematic literature review

Sachin Bavage, Sharanbasappa Durg, Shoukath Ali Kareem, Shivsharan B. Dhadded

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1734114016300433

We have recently published guidelines for conducting systematic literature reviews. We used the example of SCM, but it can be adapted to other disciplines. You can find our article on my ResearchGate page. Christian F. Durach, Joakim Kembro & Andreas Wieland (2017), A new paradigm for systematic literature reviews in supply chain management, Journal of Supply Chain Management, Vol. 53, Issue 4.

Free training on doing meta-analysis in Review Manager:

https://sites.google.com/site/revmantutorial1/about