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Educational Researcher Nov 1976, Vol. 5, No. 10

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EDITORIAL

Meta-analysis and interactive evaluation will without doubt be abused as well as used with positive benefit.

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In the mid-1970’s, Gene Glass, and educational researcher, published a brief paper which, …

… signaled the beginning of a new way of thinking about information in the sciences. Indeed, “Primary, secondary, and meta-analysis of research” (Glass 1976) is arguably one of the most influential papers in the history of science.

Glass, then in his mid-thirties and fully aware of the topic’s potential importance, had labored and agonized over the paper for two years …

In the intervening quarter-century, meta-analysis has become a staple of medical research, as well as those sciences which first embraced it: social science and psychology, management and marketing, education, and epidemiology.

But the embrace, or at least acceptance, of meta-analysis has not been universal. Indeed, it has been reviled, sometimes vehemently.

KW Goodman. Ethics and evidence-based medicine. Fallibility and responsibility in clinical science.