Conducting a meta-analysis in the age of open science: Tools, tips, and practical recommendations.

ABSTRACT

Psychology researchers are rapidly adopting open science practices, yet clear guidelines on how to apply these practices to meta-analysis remain lacking. In this tutorial, we describe why open science is important in the context of meta-analysis in psychology, and suggest how to adopt the 3 main components of open science preregistration, open materials, and open data. We first describe how to make the preregistration as thorough as possible-and how to handle deviations from the plan. We then focus on creating easy-to-read materials (e.g., search syntax, R scripts) to facilitate reproducibility and bolster the impact of a meta-analysis. Finally, we suggest how to organize data (e.g., literature search results, data extracted from studies) that are easy to share, interpret, and update as new studies emerge. For each step of the meta-analysis, we provide example templates, accompanied by brief video tutorials, and show how to integrate these practices into the Open Science Framework (https//osf.io/q8stz/). (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).