METAR
Conducting Meta-Analysis with R
METAR
Conducting Meta-Analysis with REvidence synthesis
Course description
METAR provides a practical and methodologically rigorous introduction to conducting meta-analysis with R. It covers the complete evidence-synthesis workflow: formulating a review question, developing an analysis-ready extraction table, computing effect sizes, fitting fixed-effect and random-effects models, assessing heterogeneity, producing forest plots, exploring moderators, assessing publication bias, evaluating certainty of evidence, and preparing a reproducible Quarto report.
The course emphasizes transparent reporting, correct interpretation of pooled estimates, reproducible analysis, and publication-quality tables and figures.
Learning objectives
By the end of METAR, participants will be able to:
- formulate a meta-analysis question using the PICO framework;
- structure extracted study data for analysis in R;
- compute effect sizes for binary and continuous outcomes;
- fit fixed-effect and random-effects meta-analysis models;
- quantify and explore heterogeneity using Q, I², and tau²;
- produce publication-quality forest plots;
- conduct subgroup analysis and meta-regression;
- assess small-study effects and publication bias;
- summarize risk of bias and certainty of evidence;
- produce a reproducible meta-analysis report with Quarto.
Schedule
| No. | Topic |
|---|---|
| 1 | Intro to systematic reviews & meta-analysis, protocol and search strategy |
| 2 | Data extraction, risk of bias & preparing data in R |
| 3 | Effect sizes for binary and continuous outcomes |
| 4 | Fixed-effect and random-effects models |
| 5 | Heterogeneity and sensitivity analysis |
| 6 | Forest plots and result interpretation |
| 7 | Subgroup analysis, meta-regression, publication bias & certainty of evidence |
| 8 | Reproducible reporting and final project |
Practical information
- Audience
- Clinicians, researchers, PhD students, public health professionals, evidence synthesis analysts
- Prerequisites
- Basic R recommended, as covered in BIOSTATR
- Format
- Live sessions, slides, notebooks, datasets, exercises
- Schedule
- Mon/Wed/Fri 18h00–20h00, Sun 10h00–12h00 (Morocco time)
- Tools
- R, RStudio, Quarto
- Assessment
- Reproducible Quarto mini-project