Scientists have paid more and more attention to the nitrous oxide (N_2O) emissions due to the great contribution of N_2O to global warming and stratospheric ozone destruction. Agricultural N_2O emissions have been estimated to more than 60%-75% of calculated annual atmospheric N_2O. Thus, it is critical to identify the effects on N_2O emission responding to residue retention (RR) in understanding how RR contributes to mitigation of climate change. In this study, a meta-analysis based on 31 published peer-reviewed papers published before 2015 was conducted to investigate the effects of RR on soil N_2O emission and 79 available comparisons were compiled into the dataset. Natural log of response ratio was used as the effect size in the random effect meta-analysis. Only field scale studies were included in this study. Original documented information, including seasonal accumulative N_2O emission flux, standard deviation, replicates, and types of land-use were obtained from each study. If seasonal accumulative N_2O emission fluxes were not directly provided, these values were calculated by multiplying time and mean N_2O emissions by the measurement period. To identify the difference from site-specific conditions, a categorical meta-analysis were adopted by dividing the comparisons into groups to assess the effects of N_2O emission responding to RR under different cropping systems, soil properties, land use types, and regions. The results presented herein showed that differences in N_2O emission under RR among regions were obvious in the categorical meta-analysis. For example, RR significantly reduced N_2O emission by 17% in the Eastern China (P<0.05), while significantly increased the emission by 95% and 34% in the Central and North China, respectively (P<0.05). Furthermore, the natural log of response ratio of N_2O emission increased with increasing N fertilization input rate but was limited, and the effect of RR on N_2O emission gradually changed from suppression to promotion. In addition, when N fertilization input rate was more than 240 kg/hm~2, the effect size about N_2O emission was negative under RR. The N_2O emission were increased significantly by 21% when N fertilization input was between 180-240 kg/hm~2 and decreased significantly by 16% when N fertilization was between 240-300 kg/hm~2. In addition, the results showed soil pH had no significant influence on the N_2O emission. Results indicated that N_2O was significantly reduced by 29% (P<0.05) when the mass fraction of clay was less than 15%, but without significant influence when more than 15%. However, the weighted mean effect size showed a decreasing trend after increasing with pH value and mass fraction of clay. Thus, crop residue retention may increase the emission of N_2O in neutral soil, or decrease in acidity and alkalinity soil. Results also showed that the N_2O emission could increase with the increase of the amount of crop residue retention. This may due to the characteristic of residue as crop fertilizer. The C:N ratio of crop residues also affected the emission of N_2O in despite of no significant influence in this study. The retained residue with high C:N ratio could decrease N_2O emission. Significant differences in N_2O emissions were observed within the same land use type along with different cropping systems. For example, a significant decrease by 12% was observed in rice season for a rice-wheat system but a significant increase by 10% was found in rice season of rice-rape system, respectively (P<0.05). The effects of RR on N_2O emission were affected by many site-specific conditions and managements. Therefore, further research on the reduction of soil N_2O emissions with residue retention should be targeted and to specific biophysical conditions, e.g., soil type, cropping system and farming management.