Richard Stevens, PhD

University of Oxford, Oxford, UK

Kulinskaya E, Morganthaler S, Staudte RG. Meta analysis: a guide to calibrating and combining statistical evidence. Chichester, UK: Wiley Interscience, 2008.

This book is described in the preface as “primarily a source of basic methods” for meta-analysis, but chapter 1 states the true intention of this book: to lay “the foundation for a meta-analytic theory” of the authors’ own invention. The reader looking for standard meta-analytic techniques will be disappointed. This is not a textbook from which to learn classic methods such as inverse variance, Peto’s “O-E,” or even fixed-effect and random-effects meta-analyses in their usual forms. Fundamental tools, such as the “forest plot” presentation, are nowhere to be found. This is neither a tutorial for beginners nor a reference book for mainstream meta-analysis but a …