Cross-temporal meta-analysis is a newly developed but extensively applied method of quantitative literature review. This approach sorts a series of previous studies which are independent with each other but refer to the same issues in a chronological order，thus the hidden changing patterns of target variables could be observed. This method has now been widely used in psychology，educational research，behavioral science，medicine，economical management and many other areas. The use of cross-temporal meta-analysis in demographic research may contribute to revealing general trends of Chinese population changes by analyzing the results of previous studies on the same topics and with the same methods. In this paper we introduce the basic concept of cross-temporal meta-analysis，and illustrate the methods and procedures involved with a case of fertility research. Problems such as measurement instruments，odd values and their solutions are summarized，and practical applications of cross-temporal meta-analysis in demographic research are discussed.