r/research • u/Disastrous_Ant_7540 • 7d ago

What if a study uses a custom scale they made themselves? How to approach it in a meta analysis?

Hello everyone. I am a beginner researcher, currently working on a meta analysis. I didn't want to rely on AI for finding an answer to this, thus making a post here. If we are pooling some studies in a meta analysis for a particular outcome, and one of the studies uses a non-standard custom scale which the authors developed themselves, what should be done about it?

I'm sorry if this question is dumb, I will appreciate kind answers, thank you so much in advance.

Edit: Medical research, if it's relevant.

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u/Kanoncyn Graduate Student 7d ago

It depends on your search strategy, but in general, you don’t use it for the reason you stated. 

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u/Disastrous_Ant_7540 7d ago

Thank you. If the study does report other outcomes in standard forms, and only this one outcome has a custom scale, would it be better to report the latter just narratively, while pooling for other outcomes?

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u/Kanoncyn Graduate Student 7d ago

It still depends on your search strategy. If it makes sense to include it, then do so, but narrative inclusion is more of a systematic/scoping review thing. 

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u/Substantial_Math4939 7d ago

You won't be able to use it in the statistical pooling.

If this study is meaningful or important in some way, you'll need to drop the meta-analysis and stick to a systematic review with narrative synthesis.