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Contents
- Abstract
- When and Why to Use IMMMAs?
- Adding Depth of Understanding
- Identifying Neglected Critical and/or Social Justice Themes
- Synthesizing Sets of Findings in Principles for Practice
- Shaping Future Hypotheses by Noticing Issues That are Underexplored
- Making Confusing Quantitative Findings Intelligible
- Systemic Barriers to Integrated Findings: Problematic Understandings and Alternatives
- Instead of Ranking Forms of Evidence—Understanding Distinctions in the Modeling of Variability Across Quantitative and Qualitative Traditions
- Instead of Maintaining Divided Research Cultures—Appreciating a Broad Range of Values, Epistemological Perspectives, and Methods
- Instead of Denying that Experimental and Qualitative Methodologies Both Investigate Causality—Recognize How they Complement One Another
- Instead of Dividing Evidence into Outcomes and Processes—Recognize Interaction in Micro- and Macro-Levels of Change
- A Rationale for an Integrated Approach to MMMA
- Steps in an Integrative MMMA
- Determine Study Aims and Desired Products Relevant to Both Qualitative and Quantitative Analyses
- The Description of Change Processes
- The Description of Users’ Preferences, Experiences, and Values
- The Description of Decision-Making Processes in Intervention Application
- The Identification of Primary Research Articles: Considering the Logic of Each Approach
- Evaluating the Quality of Primary Research Articles
- The Identification of Initial Units
- Creating Study Summary Documents and Units Relevant to the Meta-Study Aims
- Creating Units and Labels for Qualitative Findings
- Creating Units and Labels for Quantitative Findings
- Organizing Labeled Units for Analysis: Sorting by Aim
- Creating Integrated Categories and Labels: Developing Mixed-Methods Findings
- Developing Methodological Integrity in Integrative Mixed Methods Findings
- Restrictions in Sources of Variation
- Thinking About the Contexts of Variation
- Forms of Variation and Constancy
- Reporting Findings From an Integrative MMMA
- Future Directions for Guidance Creation and Conclusion
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Abstract
This article is a guide on how to conduct mixed methods meta-analyses (sometimes called mixed methods systematic reviews, integrative meta-analyses, or integrative meta-syntheses), using an integrative approach. These aggregative methods allow researchers to synthesize qualitative and quantitative findings from a research literature in order to benefit from the strengths of both forms of analysis. The article articulates distinctions in how qualitative and quantitative methodologies work with variation to develop a coherent theoretical basis for their integration. In advancing this methodological approach to integrative mixed methods meta-analysis (IMMMA), I provide rationales for procedural decisions that support methodological integrity and address prior misconceptions...