Impact and structural features of meta-analytical studies, standard articles and reviews in psychology: Similarities and differences

Maite Barrios, Georgina Guilera and Juana Gómez-Benito

Journal of Informetrics, 2013, vol. 7, issue 2, 478-486

Abstract: Meta-analysis refers to the statistical methods used in research synthesis for combining and integrating results from individual studies. In this regard meta-analytical studies share with narrative reviews the goal of synthesizing the scientific literature on a particular topic, while as in the case of standard articles they present new results. This study aims to identify the potential similarities and differences between meta-analytical studies, reviews and standard articles as regards their impact and structural features in the field of psychology. To this end a random sample of 335 examples of each type of document were selected from the Thomson Reuters Web of Science database. The results showed that meta-analytical studies receive more citations than do both reviews and standard articles. All three types of documents showed a similar pattern in terms of institutional collaboration, while reviews and meta-analytical studies had a similar number of authors per document. However, reviews had a greater number of references and pages than did meta-analytical studies. The implications of these results for the scientific community are discussed.

Keywords: Meta-analysis; Review; Citations; Impact; Document type (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C10 O30 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:infome:v:7:y:2013:i:2:p:478-486

DOI: 10.1016/j.joi.2013.01.012

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