What Synthesis Methodology Should I Use?

• What Synthesis Methodology Should I Use? A Review and Analysis of Approaches to Research Synthesis

• Author(s) / Creator(s)

  • Schick-Makaroff, K.
  • MacDonald, M.
  • Plummer, M.
  • Burgess, J.
  • Neander, W.

• Background: When we began this process, we were doctoral students and a faculty member in a research methods course. As students, we were facing a review of the literature for our dissertations. We encountered several different ways of conducting a review but were unable to locate any resources that synthesized all of the various synthesis methodologies. Our purpose is to present a comprehensive overview and assessment of the main approaches to research synthesis. We use ‘research synthesis’ as a broad overarching term to describe various approaches to combining, integrating, and synthesizing research findings. Methods: We conducted an integrative review of the literature to explore the historical, contextual, and evolving nature of research synthesis. We searched five databases, reviewed websites of key organizations, hand-searched several journals, and examined relevant texts from the reference lists of the documents we had already obtained. Results: We identified four broad categories of research synthesis methodology including conventional, quantitative, qualitative, and emerging syntheses. Each of the broad categories was compared to the others on the following: key characteristics, purpose, method, product, context, underlying assumptions, unit of analysis, strengths and limitations, and when to use each approach. Conclusions: The current state of research synthesis reflects significant advancements in emerging synthesis studies that integrate diverse data types and sources. New approaches to research synthesis provide a much broader range of review alternatives available to health and social science students and researchers.

• Date created

  2016-03-30

• Subjects / Keywords

  • Methodology
  • Knowledge Synthesis
  • Systematic Review
  • Research Synthesis

• Type of Item

  Article (Published)

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/r3-jb5f-5m24

• License

  © 2016 Schick-Makaroff, K., MacDonald, M., Plummer, M., Burgess, J., & Neander, W. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.