"The conference was an exciting mix of new methods for research synthesis and applications of using new techniques", said Terri Pigott, professor at Loyola University Chicago, USA, and one of the conference’s keynote speakers. "I enjoyed meeting early career scholars who are interested in research synthesis methods - they always challenge me to think about new ways of conducting research syntheses."
It was the second time, that ZPID - Leibniz Institute for Psychology Information had organized a conference on research synthesis and big data in psychology. "The topics addressed are important to us, since we are scaling up our research efforts in this area decisively", said ZPID Director Professor Michael Bosnjak.
Avraham N. Kluger, professor at the The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, had traveled to Dubrovnik, because he had learned that Wolfgang Viechtbauer, associate professor at Maastricht University, was invited to give a keynote talk.
"The conference attracted many experts, and it was conducted such that it allowed to create new relationships and to learn from each other", said Kluger. "I came to learn about metafor and Wolfgang Viechtbauer was so generous with his time walking me through my own code to properly model my data. I also met young researchers who taught me about complex meta-analyses (e.g., Belen who taught me how to conduct cross-level modeling)."
For the first time, ZPID had awarded a travel grant to enable young researchers to participate in the conference. Niclas Kuper, master's student at the University of Hamburg, was one who profited from it. "The presentations were very interesting and broadened my knowledge of meta-analysis. Moreover, I got to know many nice people. Through discussions with them, I gained several valuable insights that will be helpful for meta-analytic projects that I’m currently involved with", said Kuper.
He also liked the fact that the conference was quite interdisciplinary in the sense that some attendees had a methodological background while others came from different applied areas of psychology. This resulted in a valuable diversity of expertise and perspectives. Kuper: "Overall, I'm really looking forward to returning to this conference in subsequent years."
ZPID's next Research Synthesis and Big Data Conference will take place in 2021 in Frankfurt, Germany. Stay informed and sign up for our newsletter.
All keynote talks of this year's conference are available as video via ZPID's media center, presentation slides via PsychArchives.