MIX 2.0 beta available soon!!!
I have been working hard lately to get MIX updated thoroughly. MIX 2.0 is a near-complete rewrite and will be specifically made for Excel 2007. It uses a new structured approach to meta-analysis of exploration, synthesis, and evaluation. Check out the new Web site for MIX 2.0 here.
MIX 1.7 will remain available for users of Excel 2003 and older versions of Excel via this Web site.
MIX - introduction
Meta-analysis has become a well-known method for the synthesis of quantitative data from previously conducted research in applied health sciences. The number of software packages that can perform meta-analysis has increased over the years, but their usage has been hampered by the high price and steep learning curve of the more professional programs and the lack of functionality and updates in the less expensive ones.
We set out to create and validate an easy-to-use and comprehensive meta-analysis package that would be simple enough (as far as programming is concerned) to remain available as a free download. The result is MIX, an interactive program that uses Excel as calculation and programming platform. We hope you like it...
Current version
The current version of MIX is 1.7. You can download it and view the version history in the download section of this Web site.
Citation
As of MIX 1.61, we are using a strict citation policy. If you use MIX for scientific purposes (for journal publications, book chapters, presentations, workshops, or courses), we ask you to to use the following two citations to refer to MIX:
Bax L, Yu LM, Ikeda N, Tsuruta H, Moons KGM: Development and validation of MIX: comprehensive free software for meta-analysis of causal research data. BMC Medical Research Methodology 2006, 6(50).
Bax L, Yu LM, Ikeda N, Tsuruta H, Moons KGM: MIX: comprehensive free software for meta-analysis of causal research data. Version 1.7. http://mix-for-meta-analysis.info, 2008.
Although we cannot really enforce this policy, we would like to stress that the more MIX is referenced, the easier it will be to explain to our supporters and sponsors that it is important to keep MIX free and alive.
Validity
Since some people doubt that Excel can be used for serious statistical work, we took extra care to assess the validity of meta-analysis results from MIX. The validation was done with two major statistical packages, STATA and CMA, and revealed that all results from these programs can be reproduced with MIX. The validation, along with the official introduction of the program, was published in BMC Medical Research Methodology, a peer-reviewed open-access journal.
Feedback
Because we do not have a professional development team, we depend on users to provide us with feedback and requests for new features, so feel free to . All comments, negative and positive are appreciated. If you would like to see the testimonials of happy users or would like to contribute one yourself, check out the testimonials page.