The AERA SIG on Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis is proud to present a regular, online seminar series on the methodology of systematic reviews, meta-analysis, and evidence synthesis for education research and the broader social sciences. Live seminars are usually scheduled for Third Fridays of the month (with a few exceptions), from 9-10 a.m. Pacific/10-11 a.m. Mountain/11 a.m.-12 noon Central/12-1 p.m. Eastern/16:00-17:00 UTC. The seminars are open to all (you need not be a SIG or AERA member) but require registering. Most talks will be recorded and made available for later viewing.

Registration Required

To participate in the 2024-25 seminars, please register here. You’ll only need to do this once. After registering, you will receive a Zoom link for all of the events in the seminar series. Please note that you will need to register for the 2024-25 seminars, even if you participated in last year’s seminar series.

Mailing List

To get regular updates about upcoming presentations, please register here.

Google Calendar

You can find a Google Calendar with all of our events here.

Suggest a Speaker

Is there a scholar who you would like to hear from as part of the seminar? Are you interested in presenting your own work on evidence synthesis methodology? Please feel free to reach out with suggestions, including self-nominations, to James Pustejovsky. Nominations will be considered if they fall within the scope of the seminar series. Speakers need not be members of AERA. We welcome scholars from outside of North America.

Acknowledgements

The seminar series is supported by the Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education, through Grant R305B190002, the Meta-Analysis Training Institute, and by the National Science Foundation through Award 1937642, the Modern Meta-Analysis Research Institute.

Seminar

2024-25 Seminars and Recordings

October 18, 2024, 9 am CDT Fitting Flexible Meta-Analytic Models with Structural Equation Modeling Speaker: Dr. Mike Cheung, National University of Singapore Description: Understanding the differences between various meta-analytic models, such as the fixed-effect, random-effects, and multiplicative error models, can be challenging for researchers. This presentation explains these models using a graphical representation within a structural equation modeling (SEM) framework. Users specify meta-analytic models using lavaan syntax.
Seminar

Upcoming Seminars

November 15, 2024, 11 am CST Using GPT API Models as Second Screeners of Titles and Abstracts in High-Quality Systematic Reviews Speaker: Dr. Mikkel Vembye, Danish Center for Social Science Research Description: Independent human double screening of titles and abstracts is a critical step to ensure the quality of systematic reviews and meta-analyses. However, double screening is a resource-demanding procedure that slows down the review process. In this presentation, I will demonstrate how reviewers reliably can implement OpenAI’s GPT models as second screeners of title and abstracts to mitigate this resource demand.
Seminar

2023-24 Seminars and Recordings

May 17, 2024 Investigating Patterns of Fadeout using MERF, the Meta-Analysis of Educational RCTs with Follow-up Speaker: Emma Hart, Doctoral Candidate, Teachers College, Columbia University Description: Researchers and policymakers aspire for educational interventions to change children’s long-run developmental trajectories. Developmental theory has informed this expectation; boosts to child skills should initiate developmental cascades consistent with long-run intervention effects. Increasing evidence suggests that while interventions often generate impacts on child skills at post-test, these effects commonly fade in the years following the intervention’s end.