Looking for good introductory treatment of meta-analysis A (non-statistician) colleague has been encountering meta-analyses in papers he reviews for medical journals and is looking for a good introductory level treatment so he can educate himself.  Any recommendations?  Favorites?  Books, monographs, nontechnical survey articles would all be fine.
(Yes, he's familiar with the Wikipedia entry and other stuff readily accessible by a Google search, such as Jerry Dallal's nice little article.)
 A: I wrote a post a while back on getting started with meta analysis with:
(a) tips on getting started,
(b) links to online introductory texts, 
and (c) links to free software for meta analysis.
Specifically, you might want to read James DeCoster's notes.
A: Fredric M. Wolf's little green Sage book is worth the $18 or so.  "Pleasantly mathematical" but not too technical, not too dogmatic either (it's a fiercely contested field, you probably know), good for a person with what I'd call intermediate-level stats/research experience.
A: I have two suggestions:


*

*Systematic Reviews in Health Care: Meta-Analysis in Context (Amazon link)

*Introduction to Meta-Analysis (Statistics in Practice) (Amazon link)


Both books are very good, including introductory information as well as detailed information about how to actually perform meta-analyses.
A: I'll add an independent recommendation for Jeromy's blog post, and second the suggestions of James DeCoster's notes and the Borenstein textbook (propofols' no. 2).
At risk of indulging in self-promotion, I recently published a methods paper entitled Getting Started with Meta-analysis.  It's aimed at ecologists and evolutionary biologists, so the examples are taken from these fields, but I hope it will be useful for those working in other areas. 
