This document provides an introduction and overview of meta-analysis. It discusses that meta-analysis allows researchers to combine results from multiple studies examining the same topic. The document outlines the basic steps of meta-analysis, including searching the literature to identify relevant studies, choosing an effect size statistic to combine results, calculating and presenting summary statistics using forest plots, and addressing potential biases. Meta-analysis has become popular for synthesizing evidence in fields like education and medicine and is increasingly being used in applied ecology.