With plenty of research being conducted in every single domain, it becomes a necessity to assess earlier studies to draw conclusions about that body of research and to conduct new research in the specified domain. This is when meta-analysis comes into the picture. Basically, meta-analysis is a statistical approach for combining data from multiple studies on a certain topic. In simple words, meta-analysis is a technique which lets you review the earlier published studies on a specific topic and then analyse the results to find a common trend across those studies. This technique is mostly used in research in general medical, psychology, etc. The main objectives of meta-analysis are to:

• Develop a new hypothesis to help new studies
• Overcome the limitations of sample (small) size
• Establish statistical worthiness

In recent days, meta-analysis had replaced the traditional narrative review technique. While there are many reasons as to why meta-analysis are so popular and useful, we have enlisted a few reasons among them to help you understand the importance of meta-analysis.

1. Plan new studies - Meta-analysis plays a vital role in the planning/developing a new study. This technique can help you figure out which all research questions have already been answered, which are yet to be answered, which populations or outcomes have the potential to yield the desired result and among the well-planned intervention, which variant is likely to be robust.
2. Publishing - Today, many journals out there encourage research scholars to submit the meta-analysis that effectively outlines the evidence of a specific research question. Not just this, meta-analysis is also included in the introduction of a research paper that reports the outcomes for a primary research to synthesise the prior data.
   

Now the question is, how is meta-analysis performed? To help struggling research scholars, we have mentioned the steps involved in meta-analysis process, of which includes: 

1. Figure out or formulate a research problem - Similar to research study, meta-analysis begins with a research question. Based on your theory/study, develop your targeted research question. However, if you are unable to establish a research question, consider talking help from the team offering PhD thesis writing service.
2. Perform a literature search - Identify, retrieve, and critically analyse published & unpublished studies. This involves looking out for multiple online databases including the like PsycINFO & PubMed, peer-reviewed journals, books, etc.
3. Deciding the eligibility of the study (inclusion & exclusion) - You must identify and state the types of studies to be included. I.e. you cannot keep all the data you have collected. For this reason, you have to exclude the unnecessary and not so crucial data and keep the most crucial ones including high-quality evidence, case studies etc. 
4. Data extraction - Extract the set of data for the result of interest that is to be combined in the final analysis set. Also, calculate the effect size for every single eligible study.
5. Perform the meta-analysis - The effect size and precision of a study must be aggregated into a summary statistics. This is done through meta-analysis software such as STATA, review manager or comprehensive meta-analysis software. Remember, it is a must for you to confirm that the effect sizes are independent of each other before starting with the analysis process. If you want help in implementing the results of this analysis in your thesis, take assistance from writers providing PhD thesis and dissertation writing Service offer in Singapore.

To conclude, if conducted is an apt and clearly documented manner, meta-analysis can make a critical contribution to your specific field of study and can get published in a high-impact journal.