Expanding open and transparent meta-analytic data with PsychOpen CAMA: The implementation of a community-augmented meta-analysis on the Dark Triad of personality

Abstract

Recent criticisms emphasize the lack of recency and transparency of meta-analyses and systematic reviews, especially for highly cited topics. Open-repository concepts, which have been developed in various scientific fields in the last years, address these very issues. One such concept, community-augmented meta-analysis (CAMA), describes a web-based approach to meta-analysis, which provides open access to all data and results. The main idea of CAMA is to keep meta-analyses up-to-date by allowing the research community to continuously include new evidence, thus making meta-analyses replicable, expandable, and “living.” The Leibniz Institute for Psychology (ZPID) is currently developing a platform, PsychOpen CAMA, which will enable the realization of CAMAs in psychological research. The contribution presents first insights on how to conduct a CAMA with a trial version of PsychOpen CAMA, using as exemplary illustration a large-scale living meta-analysis on the Dark Triad of personality, which is currently in progress. The field of the Dark Triad research appears particularly suited for CAMA, as there is an ever-growing research interest and accumulation of evidence. The meta-analysis focuses on the interrelations of the Dark Triad and on univariate and multivariate sex differences in the three traits. The contribution provides a preliminary step-by-step guide on the implementation of a CAMA with PsychOpen CAMA, including data curation, aggregation, and analysis. Possibilities and benefits of conducting living meta-analyses with PsychOpen CAMA in the future are discussed.