AbstractThe combination of information from diverse sources is a common task encountered in computational statistics. A popular label for analyses involving the combination of results from independent studies is meta‐analysis. The goal of the methodology is to bring together the results of different studies, reanalyze the disparate results within the context of their common endpoints, synthesize where possible into a single summary endpoint, increase the sensitivity of the analysis to detect the presence of adverse effects, and provide a quantitative analysis of the phenomenon of interest based on the combined data. This article discusses some basic methods in meta‐analytic calculations and includes commentary on how to combine or average results from multiple models applied to the same set of data. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.This article is categorized under: Applications of Computational Statistics > Defense and National Security