How to Synthesize Written Information from Multiple Sources

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Saul Mcleod, PhD

Editor-in-Chief for Simply Psychology

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Saul Mcleod, Ph.D., is a qualified psychology teacher with over 18 years experience of working in further and higher education. He has been published in peer-reviewed journals, including the Journal of Clinical Psychology.

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When you write a literature review or essay, you have to go beyond just summarizing the articles you’ve read – you need to synthesize the literature to show how it all fits together (and how your own research fits in).

Synthesizing simply means combining. Instead of summarizing the main points of each source in turn, you put together the ideas and findings of multiple sources in order to make an overall point.

At the most basic level, this involves looking for similarities and differences between your sources. Your synthesis should show the reader where the sources overlap and where they diverge.

Unsynthesized Example

Franz (2008) studied undergraduate online students. He looked at 17 females and 18 males and found that none of them liked APA. According to Franz, the evidence suggested that all students are reluctant to learn citations style. Perez (2010) also studies undergraduate students. She looked at 42 females and 50 males and found that males were significantly more inclined to use citation software ( p < .05). Findings suggest that females might graduate sooner. Goldstein (2012) looked at British undergraduates. Among a sample of 50, all females, all confident in their abilities to cite and were eager to write their dissertations.

Synthesized Example

Studies of undergraduate students reveal conflicting conclusions regarding relationships between advanced scholarly study and citation efficacy. Although Franz (2008) found that no participants enjoyed learning citation style, Goldstein (2012) determined in a larger study that all participants watched felt comfortable citing sources, suggesting that variables among participant and control group populations must be examined more closely. Although Perez (2010) expanded on Franz’s original study with a larger, more diverse sample…

Step 1: Organize your sources

After collecting the relevant literature, you’ve got a lot of information to work through, and no clear idea of how it all fits together.

Before you can start writing, you need to organize your notes in a way that allows you to see the relationships between sources.

One way to begin synthesizing the literature is to put your notes into a table. Depending on your topic and the type of literature you’re dealing with, there are a couple of different ways you can organize this.

Summary table

A summary table collates the key points of each source under consistent headings. This is a good approach if your sources tend to have a similar structure – for instance, if they’re all empirical papers.

Each row in the table lists one source, and each column identifies a specific part of the source. You can decide which headings to include based on what’s most relevant to the literature you’re dealing with.

For example, you might include columns for things like aims, methods, variables, population, sample size, and conclusion.

For each study, you briefly summarize each of these aspects. You can also include columns for your own evaluation and analysis.

summary table for synthesizing the literature

The summary table gives you a quick overview of the key points of each source. This allows you to group sources by relevant similarities, as well as noticing important differences or contradictions in their findings.

Synthesis matrix

A synthesis matrix is useful when your sources are more varied in their purpose and structure – for example, when you’re dealing with books and essays making various different arguments about a topic.

Each column in the table lists one source. Each row is labeled with a specific concept, topic or theme that recurs across all or most of the sources.

Then, for each source, you summarize the main points or arguments related to the theme.

synthesis matrix

The purposes of the table is to identify the common points that connect the sources, as well as identifying points where they diverge or disagree.

Step 2: Outline your structure

Now you should have a clear overview of the main connections and differences between the sources you’ve read. Next, you need to decide how you’ll group them together and the order in which you’ll discuss them.

For shorter papers, your outline can just identify the focus of each paragraph; for longer papers, you might want to divide it into sections with headings.

There are a few different approaches you can take to help you structure your synthesis.

If your sources cover a broad time period, and you found patterns in how researchers approached the topic over time, you can organize your discussion chronologically .

That doesn’t mean you just summarize each paper in chronological order; instead, you should group articles into time periods and identify what they have in common, as well as signalling important turning points or developments in the literature.

If the literature covers various different topics, you can organize it thematically .

That means that each paragraph or section focuses on a specific theme and explains how that theme is approached in the literature.

synthesizing the literature using themes

Source Used with Permission: The Chicago School

If you’re drawing on literature from various different fields or they use a wide variety of research methods, you can organize your sources methodologically .

That means grouping together studies based on the type of research they did and discussing the findings that emerged from each method.

If your topic involves a debate between different schools of thought, you can organize it theoretically .

That means comparing the different theories that have been developed and grouping together papers based on the position or perspective they take on the topic, as well as evaluating which arguments are most convincing.

Step 3: Write paragraphs with topic sentences

What sets a synthesis apart from a summary is that it combines various sources. The easiest way to think about this is that each paragraph should discuss a few different sources, and you should be able to condense the overall point of the paragraph into one sentence.

This is called a topic sentence , and it usually appears at the start of the paragraph. The topic sentence signals what the whole paragraph is about; every sentence in the paragraph should be clearly related to it.

A topic sentence can be a simple summary of the paragraph’s content:

“Early research on [x] focused heavily on [y].”

For an effective synthesis, you can use topic sentences to link back to the previous paragraph, highlighting a point of debate or critique:

“Several scholars have pointed out the flaws in this approach.” “While recent research has attempted to address the problem, many of these studies have methodological flaws that limit their validity.”

By using topic sentences, you can ensure that your paragraphs are coherent and clearly show the connections between the articles you are discussing.

As you write your paragraphs, avoid quoting directly from sources: use your own words to explain the commonalities and differences that you found in the literature.

Don’t try to cover every single point from every single source – the key to synthesizing is to extract the most important and relevant information and combine it to give your reader an overall picture of the state of knowledge on your topic.

Step 4: Revise, edit and proofread

Like any other piece of academic writing, synthesizing literature doesn’t happen all in one go – it involves redrafting, revising, editing and proofreading your work.

Checklist for Synthesis

  •   Do I introduce the paragraph with a clear, focused topic sentence?
  •   Do I discuss more than one source in the paragraph?
  •   Do I mention only the most relevant findings, rather than describing every part of the studies?
  •   Do I discuss the similarities or differences between the sources, rather than summarizing each source in turn?
  •   Do I put the findings or arguments of the sources in my own words?
  •   Is the paragraph organized around a single idea?
  •   Is the paragraph directly relevant to my research question or topic?
  •   Is there a logical transition from this paragraph to the next one?

Further Information

How to Synthesise: a Step-by-Step Approach

Help…I”ve Been Asked to Synthesize!

Learn how to Synthesise (combine information from sources)

How to write a Psychology Essay

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  • Synthesizing Sources | Examples & Synthesis Matrix

Synthesizing Sources | Examples & Synthesis Matrix

Published on July 4, 2022 by Eoghan Ryan . Revised on May 31, 2023.

Synthesizing sources involves combining the work of other scholars to provide new insights. It’s a way of integrating sources that helps situate your work in relation to existing research.

Synthesizing sources involves more than just summarizing . You must emphasize how each source contributes to current debates, highlighting points of (dis)agreement and putting the sources in conversation with each other.

You might synthesize sources in your literature review to give an overview of the field or throughout your research paper when you want to position your work in relation to existing research.

Table of contents

Example of synthesizing sources, how to synthesize sources, synthesis matrix, other interesting articles, frequently asked questions about synthesizing sources.

Let’s take a look at an example where sources are not properly synthesized, and then see what can be done to improve it.

This paragraph provides no context for the information and does not explain the relationships between the sources described. It also doesn’t analyze the sources or consider gaps in existing research.

Research on the barriers to second language acquisition has primarily focused on age-related difficulties. Building on Lenneberg’s (1967) theory of a critical period of language acquisition, Johnson and Newport (1988) tested Lenneberg’s idea in the context of second language acquisition. Their research seemed to confirm that young learners acquire a second language more easily than older learners. Recent research has considered other potential barriers to language acquisition. Schepens, van Hout, and van der Slik (2022) have revealed that the difficulties of learning a second language at an older age are compounded by dissimilarity between a learner’s first language and the language they aim to acquire. Further research needs to be carried out to determine whether the difficulty faced by adult monoglot speakers is also faced by adults who acquired a second language during the “critical period.”

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synthesis in research paper meaning

To synthesize sources, group them around a specific theme or point of contention.

As you read sources, ask:

  • What questions or ideas recur? Do the sources focus on the same points, or do they look at the issue from different angles?
  • How does each source relate to others? Does it confirm or challenge the findings of past research?
  • Where do the sources agree or disagree?

Once you have a clear idea of how each source positions itself, put them in conversation with each other. Analyze and interpret their points of agreement and disagreement. This displays the relationships among sources and creates a sense of coherence.

Consider both implicit and explicit (dis)agreements. Whether one source specifically refutes another or just happens to come to different conclusions without specifically engaging with it, you can mention it in your synthesis either way.

Synthesize your sources using:

  • Topic sentences to introduce the relationship between the sources
  • Signal phrases to attribute ideas to their authors
  • Transition words and phrases to link together different ideas

To more easily determine the similarities and dissimilarities among your sources, you can create a visual representation of their main ideas with a synthesis matrix . This is a tool that you can use when researching and writing your paper, not a part of the final text.

In a synthesis matrix, each column represents one source, and each row represents a common theme or idea among the sources. In the relevant rows, fill in a short summary of how the source treats each theme or topic.

This helps you to clearly see the commonalities or points of divergence among your sources. You can then synthesize these sources in your work by explaining their relationship.

If you want to know more about ChatGPT, AI tools , citation , and plagiarism , make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples.

  • ChatGPT vs human editor
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Synthesizing sources means comparing and contrasting the work of other scholars to provide new insights.

It involves analyzing and interpreting the points of agreement and disagreement among sources.

You might synthesize sources in your literature review to give an overview of the field of research or throughout your paper when you want to contribute something new to existing research.

A literature review is a survey of scholarly sources (such as books, journal articles, and theses) related to a specific topic or research question .

It is often written as part of a thesis, dissertation , or research paper , in order to situate your work in relation to existing knowledge.

Topic sentences help keep your writing focused and guide the reader through your argument.

In an essay or paper , each paragraph should focus on a single idea. By stating the main idea in the topic sentence, you clarify what the paragraph is about for both yourself and your reader.

At college level, you must properly cite your sources in all essays , research papers , and other academic texts (except exams and in-class exercises).

Add a citation whenever you quote , paraphrase , or summarize information or ideas from a source. You should also give full source details in a bibliography or reference list at the end of your text.

The exact format of your citations depends on which citation style you are instructed to use. The most common styles are APA , MLA , and Chicago .

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If you want to cite this source, you can copy and paste the citation or click the “Cite this Scribbr article” button to automatically add the citation to our free Citation Generator.

Ryan, E. (2023, May 31). Synthesizing Sources | Examples & Synthesis Matrix. Scribbr. Retrieved February 22, 2024, from https://www.scribbr.com/working-with-sources/synthesizing-sources/

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Synthesis Visualization

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About Synthesis

Approaches to synthesis.

You can sort the literature in various ways, for example:

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How to Begin?

Read your sources carefully and find the main idea(s) of each source

Look for similarities in your sources – which sources are talking about the same main ideas? (for example, sources that discuss the historical background on your topic)

Use the worksheet (above) or synthesis matrix (below) to get organized

This work can be messy. Don't worry if you have to go through a few iterations of the worksheet or matrix as you work on your lit review!

Four Examples of Student Writing

In the four examples below, only ONE shows a good example of synthesis: the fourth column, or  Student D . For a web accessible version, click the link below the image.

Four Examples of Student Writing; Follow the "long description" infographic link for a web accessible description.

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Synthesizing Research

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When combining another author’s ideas with your own, we have talked about how using the can help make sure your points are being adequately argued (if you have not read our handout on the  evidence cycle,  check it out!). Synthesis takes assertions (statements that describe your claim), evidence (facts and proof from outside sources), and commentary (your connections to why the evidence supports your claim), and blends these processes together to make a cohesive paragraph.

In other words, synthesis encompasses several aspects:

  • It is the process of integrating support from more than one source for one idea/argument while also identifying how sources are related to each other and to your main idea.
  • It is an acknowledgment of how the source material from several sources address the same question/research topic.
  • It is the identification of how important factors (assumptions, interpretations of results, theories, hypothesis, speculations, etc.) relate between separate sources.

TIP: It’s a fruit smoothie!

Think of synthesis as a fruit smoothie that you are creating in your paper. You will have unique parts and flavors in your writing that you will need to blend together to make one tasty, unified drink!

Why Synthesis is Important

  • Synthesis integrates information from multiple sources, which shows that you have done the necessary research to engage with a topic more fully.
  • Research involves incorporating many sources to understand and/or answer a research question, and discovering these connections between the sources helps you better analyze and understand the conversations surrounding your topic.
  • Successful synthesis creates links between your ideas helping your paper “flow” and connect better.
  • Synthesis prevents your papers from looking like a list of copied and pasted sources from various authors.
  • Synthesis is a higher order process in writing—this is the area where you as a writer get to shine and show your audience your reasoning.

Types of Synthesis

Demonstrates how two or more sources agree with one another.

The collaborative nature of writing tutorials has been discussed by scholars like Andrea Lunsford (1991) and Stephen North (1984). In these essays, they explore the usefulness and the complexities of collaboration between tutors and students in writing center contexts.

Demonstrates how two or more sources support a main point in different ways.

While some scholars like Berlin (1987) have primarily placed their focus on the histories of large, famous universities, other scholars like Yahner and Murdick (1991) have found value in connecting their local histories to contrast or highlight trends found in bigger-name universities.

Accumulation

Demonstrates how one source builds on the idea of another.

Although North’s (1984) essay is fundamental to many writing centers today, Lunsford (1991) takes his ideas a step further by identifying different writing center models and also expanding North’s ideas on how writing centers can help students become better writers.

Demonstrates how one source discusses the effects of another source’s ideas.

While Healy (2001) notes the concerns of having primarily email appointments in writing centers, he also notes that constraints like funding, resources, and time affect how online resources are formed. For writing centers, email is the most economical and practical option for those wanting to offer online services but cannot dedicate the time or money to other online tutoring methods. As a result, in Neaderheiser and Wolfe’s (2009) reveals that of all the online options available in higher education, over 91% of institutions utilize online tutoring through email, meaning these constraints significantly affect the types of services writing centers offer.

Discussing Specific Source Ideas/Arguments

To debate with clarity and precision, you may need to incorporate a quote into your statement. Using can help you to thoroughly introduce your quotes so that they fit in to your paragraph and your argument. Remember that you need to use the to bridge between your ideas and outside source material.

Berlin, J. (1987).  Rhetoric and reality: Writing instruction in American colleges, 1900-1985 . Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press.

Boquet, E.H. (2001). “Our little secret”: A history of writing centers, pre- to open admissions. In R.W. Barnett & J.S. Blumner (Eds.),  The Allyn and Bacon guide to writing center theory and practice  (pp. 42-60). Boston: Allyn and Bacon.

Carino, P. (1995). Early writing centers: Toward a history.  The Writing Center Journal ,  15 (2), 103-15.

Healy, D. (2001). From place to space: Perceptual and administrative issues in the online writing center. In R.W. Barnett & J.S. Blumner (Eds.), T he Allyn and Bacon guide to writing center theory and practice  (pp. 541-554). Boston: Allyn and Bacon.

Lunsford, A. (1991). Collaboration, control, and the idea of the writing center.  The Writing Center Journal ,  12 (1), 310-75.

Neaderheiser, S. & Wolfe, J. (2009). Between technological endorsement and resistance: The state of online writing centers.  The Writing Center Journal .  29 (1), 49-75.

North, S. (1984). The idea of a writing center.  College English ,  45 (5), 433-446.

Yahner, W. & Murdick, W. (1991). The evolution of a writing center: 1972-1990.  Writing Center Journal ,  11 (2), 13-28.

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OASIS: Writing Center

Using evidence: synthesis, synthesis video playlist.

Note that these videos were created while APA 6 was the style guide edition in use. There may be some examples of writing that have not been updated to APA 7 guidelines.

Basics of Synthesis

As you incorporate published writing into your own writing, you should aim for synthesis of the material.

Synthesizing requires critical reading and thinking in order to compare different material, highlighting similarities, differences, and connections. When writers synthesize successfully, they present new ideas based on interpretations of other evidence or arguments. You can also think of synthesis as an extension of—or a more complicated form of—analysis. One main difference is that synthesis involves multiple sources, while analysis often focuses on one source.

Conceptually, it can be helpful to think about synthesis existing at both the local (or paragraph) level and the global (or paper) level.

Local Synthesis

Local synthesis occurs at the paragraph level when writers connect individual pieces of evidence from multiple sources to support a paragraph’s main idea and advance a paper’s thesis statement. A common example in academic writing is a scholarly paragraph that includes a main idea, evidence from multiple sources, and analysis of those multiple sources together.

Global Synthesis

Global synthesis occurs at the paper (or, sometimes, section) level when writers connect ideas across paragraphs or sections to create a new narrative whole. A literature review , which can either stand alone or be a section/chapter within a capstone, is a common example of a place where global synthesis is necessary. However, in almost all academic writing, global synthesis is created by and sometimes referred to as good cohesion and flow.

Synthesis in Literature Reviews

While any types of scholarly writing can include synthesis, it is most often discussed in the context of literature reviews. Visit our literature review pages for more information about synthesis in literature reviews.

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Literature Syntheis 101

How To Synthesise The Existing Research (With Examples)

By: Derek Jansen (MBA) | Expert Reviewer: Eunice Rautenbach (DTech) | August 2023

One of the most common mistakes that students make when writing a literature review is that they err on the side of describing the existing literature rather than providing a critical synthesis of it. In this post, we’ll unpack what exactly synthesis means and show you how to craft a strong literature synthesis using practical examples.

This post is based on our popular online course, Literature Review Bootcamp . In the course, we walk you through the full process of developing a literature review, step by step. If it’s your first time writing a literature review, you definitely want to use this link to get 50% off the course (limited-time offer).

Overview: Literature Synthesis

  • What exactly does “synthesis” mean?
  • Aspect 1: Agreement
  • Aspect 2: Disagreement
  • Aspect 3: Key theories
  • Aspect 4: Contexts
  • Aspect 5: Methodologies
  • Bringing it all together

What does “synthesis” actually mean?

As a starting point, let’s quickly define what exactly we mean when we use the term “synthesis” within the context of a literature review.

Simply put, literature synthesis means going beyond just describing what everyone has said and found. Instead, synthesis is about bringing together all the information from various sources to present a cohesive assessment of the current state of knowledge in relation to your study’s research aims and questions .

Put another way, a good synthesis tells the reader exactly where the current research is “at” in terms of the topic you’re interested in – specifically, what’s known , what’s not , and where there’s a need for more research .

So, how do you go about doing this?

Well, there’s no “one right way” when it comes to literature synthesis, but we’ve found that it’s particularly useful to ask yourself five key questions when you’re working on your literature review. Having done so,  you can then address them more articulately within your actual write up. So, let’s take a look at each of these questions.

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1. Points Of Agreement

The first question that you need to ask yourself is: “Overall, what things seem to be agreed upon by the vast majority of the literature?”

For example, if your research aim is to identify which factors contribute toward job satisfaction, you’ll need to identify which factors are broadly agreed upon and “settled” within the literature. Naturally, there may at times be some lone contrarian that has a radical viewpoint , but, provided that the vast majority of researchers are in agreement, you can put these random outliers to the side. That is, of course, unless your research aims to explore a contrarian viewpoint and there’s a clear justification for doing so. 

Identifying what’s broadly agreed upon is an essential starting point for synthesising the literature, because you generally don’t want (or need) to reinvent the wheel or run down a road investigating something that is already well established . So, addressing this question first lays a foundation of “settled” knowledge.

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synthesis in research paper meaning

2. Points Of Disagreement

Related to the previous point, but on the other end of the spectrum, is the equally important question: “Where do the disagreements lie?” .

In other words, which things are not well agreed upon by current researchers? It’s important to clarify here that by disagreement, we don’t mean that researchers are (necessarily) fighting over it – just that there are relatively mixed findings within the empirical research , with no firm consensus amongst researchers.

This is a really important question to address as these “disagreements” will often set the stage for the research gap(s). In other words, they provide clues regarding potential opportunities for further research, which your study can then (hopefully) contribute toward filling. If you’re not familiar with the concept of a research gap, be sure to check out our explainer video covering exactly that .

synthesis in research paper meaning

3. Key Theories

The next question you need to ask yourself is: “Which key theories seem to be coming up repeatedly?” .

Within most research spaces, you’ll find that you keep running into a handful of key theories that are referred to over and over again. Apart from identifying these theories, you’ll also need to think about how they’re connected to each other. Specifically, you need to ask yourself:

  • Are they all covering the same ground or do they have different focal points  or underlying assumptions ?
  • Do some of them feed into each other and if so, is there an opportunity to integrate them into a more cohesive theory?
  • Do some of them pull in different directions ? If so, why might this be?
  • Do all of the theories define the key concepts and variables in the same way, or is there some disconnect? If so, what’s the impact of this ?

Simply put, you’ll need to pay careful attention to the key theories in your research area, as they will need to feature within your theoretical framework , which will form a critical component within your final literature review. This will set the foundation for your entire study, so it’s essential that you be critical in this area of your literature synthesis.

If this sounds a bit fluffy, don’t worry. We deep dive into the theoretical framework (as well as the conceptual framework) and look at practical examples in Literature Review Bootcamp . If you’d like to learn more, take advantage of our limited-time offer to get 60% off the standard price.

synthesis in research paper meaning

4. Contexts

The next question that you need to address in your literature synthesis is an important one, and that is: “Which contexts have (and have not) been covered by the existing research?” .

For example, sticking with our earlier hypothetical topic (factors that impact job satisfaction), you may find that most of the research has focused on white-collar , management-level staff within a primarily Western context, but little has been done on blue-collar workers in an Eastern context. Given the significant socio-cultural differences between these two groups, this is an important observation, as it could present a contextual research gap .

In practical terms, this means that you’ll need to carefully assess the context of each piece of literature that you’re engaging with, especially the empirical research (i.e., studies that have collected and analysed real-world data). Ideally, you should keep notes regarding the context of each study in some sort of catalogue or sheet, so that you can easily make sense of this before you start the writing phase. If you’d like, our free literature catalogue worksheet is a great tool for this task.

5. Methodological Approaches

Last but certainly not least, you need to ask yourself the question: “What types of research methodologies have (and haven’t) been used?”

For example, you might find that most studies have approached the topic using qualitative methods such as interviews and thematic analysis. Alternatively, you might find that most studies have used quantitative methods such as online surveys and statistical analysis.

But why does this matter?

Well, it can run in one of two potential directions . If you find that the vast majority of studies use a specific methodological approach, this could provide you with a firm foundation on which to base your own study’s methodology . In other words, you can use the methodologies of similar studies to inform (and justify) your own study’s research design .

On the other hand, you might argue that the lack of diverse methodological approaches presents a research gap , and therefore your study could contribute toward filling that gap by taking a different approach. For example, taking a qualitative approach to a research area that is typically approached quantitatively. Of course, if you’re going to go against the methodological grain, you’ll need to provide a strong justification for why your proposed approach makes sense. Nevertheless, it is something worth at least considering.

Regardless of which route you opt for, you need to pay careful attention to the methodologies used in the relevant studies and provide at least some discussion about this in your write-up. Again, it’s useful to keep track of this on some sort of spreadsheet or catalogue as you digest each article, so consider grabbing a copy of our free literature catalogue if you don’t have anything in place.

Looking at the methodologies of existing, similar studies will help you develop a strong research methodology for your own study.

Bringing It All Together

Alright, so we’ve looked at five important questions that you need to ask (and answer) to help you develop a strong synthesis within your literature review.  To recap, these are:

  • Which things are broadly agreed upon within the current research?
  • Which things are the subject of disagreement (or at least, present mixed findings)?
  • Which theories seem to be central to your research topic and how do they relate or compare to each other?
  • Which contexts have (and haven’t) been covered?
  • Which methodological approaches are most common?

Importantly, you’re not just asking yourself these questions for the sake of asking them – they’re not just a reflection exercise. You need to weave your answers to them into your actual literature review when you write it up. How exactly you do this will vary from project to project depending on the structure you opt for, but you’ll still need to address them within your literature review, whichever route you go.

The best approach is to spend some time actually writing out your answers to these questions, as opposed to just thinking about them in your head. Putting your thoughts onto paper really helps you flesh out your thinking . As you do this, don’t just write down the answers – instead, think about what they mean in terms of the research gap you’ll present , as well as the methodological approach you’ll take . Your literature synthesis needs to lay the groundwork for these two things, so it’s essential that you link all of it together in your mind, and of course, on paper.

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Synthesizing Sources

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When you look for areas where your sources agree or disagree and try to draw broader conclusions about your topic based on what your sources say, you are engaging in synthesis. Writing a research paper usually requires synthesizing the available sources in order to provide new insight or a different perspective into your particular topic (as opposed to simply restating what each individual source says about your research topic).

Note that synthesizing is not the same as summarizing.  

  • A summary restates the information in one or more sources without providing new insight or reaching new conclusions.
  • A synthesis draws on multiple sources to reach a broader conclusion.

There are two types of syntheses: explanatory syntheses and argumentative syntheses . Explanatory syntheses seek to bring sources together to explain a perspective and the reasoning behind it. Argumentative syntheses seek to bring sources together to make an argument. Both types of synthesis involve looking for relationships between sources and drawing conclusions.

In order to successfully synthesize your sources, you might begin by grouping your sources by topic and looking for connections. For example, if you were researching the pros and cons of encouraging healthy eating in children, you would want to separate your sources to find which ones agree with each other and which ones disagree.

After you have a good idea of what your sources are saying, you want to construct your body paragraphs in a way that acknowledges different sources and highlights where you can draw new conclusions.

As you continue synthesizing, here are a few points to remember:

  • Don’t force a relationship between sources if there isn’t one. Not all of your sources have to complement one another.
  • Do your best to highlight the relationships between sources in very clear ways.
  • Don’t ignore any outliers in your research. It’s important to take note of every perspective (even those that disagree with your broader conclusions).

Example Syntheses

Below are two examples of synthesis: one where synthesis is NOT utilized well, and one where it is.

Parents are always trying to find ways to encourage healthy eating in their children. Elena Pearl Ben-Joseph, a doctor and writer for KidsHealth , encourages parents to be role models for their children by not dieting or vocalizing concerns about their body image. The first popular diet began in 1863. William Banting named it the “Banting” diet after himself, and it consisted of eating fruits, vegetables, meat, and dry wine. Despite the fact that dieting has been around for over a hundred and fifty years, parents should not diet because it hinders children’s understanding of healthy eating.

In this sample paragraph, the paragraph begins with one idea then drastically shifts to another. Rather than comparing the sources, the author simply describes their content. This leads the paragraph to veer in an different direction at the end, and it prevents the paragraph from expressing any strong arguments or conclusions.

An example of a stronger synthesis can be found below.

Parents are always trying to find ways to encourage healthy eating in their children. Different scientists and educators have different strategies for promoting a well-rounded diet while still encouraging body positivity in children. David R. Just and Joseph Price suggest in their article “Using Incentives to Encourage Healthy Eating in Children” that children are more likely to eat fruits and vegetables if they are given a reward (855-856). Similarly, Elena Pearl Ben-Joseph, a doctor and writer for Kids Health , encourages parents to be role models for their children. She states that “parents who are always dieting or complaining about their bodies may foster these same negative feelings in their kids. Try to keep a positive approach about food” (Ben-Joseph). Martha J. Nepper and Weiwen Chai support Ben-Joseph’s suggestions in their article “Parents’ Barriers and Strategies to Promote Healthy Eating among School-age Children.” Nepper and Chai note, “Parents felt that patience, consistency, educating themselves on proper nutrition, and having more healthy foods available in the home were important strategies when developing healthy eating habits for their children.” By following some of these ideas, parents can help their children develop healthy eating habits while still maintaining body positivity.

In this example, the author puts different sources in conversation with one another. Rather than simply describing the content of the sources in order, the author uses transitions (like "similarly") and makes the relationship between the sources evident.

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  • Lit Review Prep Use this template to help you evaluate your sources, create article summaries for an annotated bibliography, and a synthesis matrix for your lit review outline.

Synthesize your Information

Synthesize: combine separate elements to form a whole.

Synthesis Matrix

A synthesis matrix helps you record the main points of each source and document how sources relate to each other.

After summarizing and evaluating your sources, arrange them in a matrix or use a citation manager to help you see how they relate to each other and apply to each of your themes or variables.  

By arranging your sources by theme or variable, you can see how your sources relate to each other, and can start thinking about how you weave them together to create a narrative.

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Synthesis in Research: Home

A visualization of synthesis

Pretend you are working with five sources for an essay, as represented by the five colored dots below.  

Sources not synthesized

Notice how there are no connections between the sources; the five sources are simply listed in some arbitrary order. What if you need to  synethesize  the sources, though? You can start synthesising by noting the similarities and differences between the sources and mapping them accordingly.

Sources sythensized

Perhaps you noticed that A (blue), B (yellow), and C (pink) make similar arguments, so they are grouped together. You also noticed that D (red) and B (yellow) share a similar methodology, so they are linked together. But perhaps D (red) does not make the same argument as B (yellow), A (blue), and C (pink). And E (green) is completely out there on his own! So you can now see that there are several possibilities for synthesizing these sources. 

The gray ring around these sources represents the synthesized claims that you can make. For instance, you might claim, "While multiple scholars agree that X, there is no overall consensus on this issue." Or you may claim, "Conflicting methodologies among research creates gaps in the research on X.

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A Guide to Evidence Synthesis: What is Evidence Synthesis?

  • Meet Our Team
  • Our Published Reviews and Protocols
  • What is Evidence Synthesis?
  • Types of Evidence Synthesis
  • Evidence Synthesis Across Disciplines
  • Finding and Appraising Existing Systematic Reviews
  • 0. Develop a Protocol
  • 1. Draft your Research Question
  • 2. Select Databases
  • 3. Select Grey Literature Sources
  • 4. Write a Search Strategy
  • 5. Register a Protocol
  • 6. Translate Search Strategies
  • 7. Citation Management
  • 8. Article Screening
  • 9. Risk of Bias Assessment
  • 10. Data Extraction
  • 11. Synthesize, Map, or Describe the Results
  • Evidence Synthesis Institute for Librarians
  • Open Access Evidence Synthesis Resources

What are Evidence Syntheses?

What are evidence syntheses.

According to the Royal Society, 'evidence synthesis' refers to the process of bringing together information from a range of sources and disciplines to inform debates and decisions on specific issues. They generally include a methodical and comprehensive literature synthesis focused on a well-formulated research question.  Their aim is to identify and synthesize all  of the scholarly research on a particular topic, including both published and unpublished studies. Evidence syntheses are conducted in an unbiased, reproducible way to provide evidence for practice and policy-making, as well as to identify gaps in the research. Evidence syntheses may also include a meta-analysis, a more quantitative process of synthesizing and visualizing data retrieved from various studies. 

Evidence syntheses are much more time-intensive than traditional literature reviews and require a multi-person research team. See this PredicTER tool to get a sense of a systematic review timeline (one type of evidence synthesis). Before embarking on an evidence synthesis, it's important to clearly identify your reasons for conducting one. For a list of types of evidence synthesis projects, see the next tab.

How Does a Traditional Literature Review Differ From an Evidence Synthesis?

How does a systematic review differ from a traditional literature review.

One commonly used form of evidence synthesis is a systematic review.  This table compares a traditional literature review with a systematic review.

Video: Reproducibility and transparent methods (Video 3:25)

Reporting Standards

There are some reporting standards for evidence syntheses. These can serve as guidelines for protocol and manuscript preparation and journals may require that these standards are followed for the review type that is being employed (e.g. systematic review, scoping review, etc). ​

  • PRISMA checklist Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) is an evidence-based minimum set of items for reporting in systematic reviews and meta-analyses.
  • PRISMA-P Standards An updated version of the original PRISMA standards for protocol development.
  • PRISMA - ScR Reporting guidelines for scoping reviews and evidence maps
  • PRISMA-IPD Standards Extension of the original PRISMA standards for systematic reviews and meta-analyses of individual participant data.
  • EQUATOR Network The EQUATOR (Enhancing the QUAlity and Transparency Of health Research) Network is an international initiative that seeks to improve the reliability and value of published health research literature by promoting transparent and accurate reporting and wider use of robust reporting guidelines. They provide a list of various standards for reporting in systematic reviews.

Video: Guidelines and reporting standards

PRISMA Flow Diagram

The  PRISMA  flow diagram depicts the flow of information through the different phases of an evidence synthesis. It maps the search (number of records identified), screening (number of records included and excluded), and selection (reasons for exclusion).  Many evidence syntheses include a PRISMA flow diagram in the published manuscript.

See below for resources to help you generate your own PRISMA flow diagram.

  • PRISMA Flow Diagram Tool
  • PRISMA Flow Diagram Word Template
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Critical Strategies and Writing

One of the basic academic writing activities is researching your topic and what others have said about it. Your goal should be to draw thoughts, observations, and claims about your topic from your research. We call this process of drawing from multiple sources “ synthesis .” Click on the accordion items below for more information.

Definition, Use, and Sample Synthesis

Synthesis defined.

Synthesis Emerges from Analysis

Synthesis emerges from analytical activities we discussed on the previous page: comparative analysis and analysis for cause and effect . For example, to communicate where scholars agree and where they disagree, one must analyze their work for similarities and differences. Also crucial for understanding scholarly discourse is understanding how a particular work of scholarship shapes the scholarship of others, causing them to head in new directions.

When Should Synthesis Be Used?

When to Use Synthesis

Many college assignments require synthesis. A literature review, for example, requires that you make explanatory claims regarding a body of research. These should go beyond summary (mere description) to provide helpful characterizations that aid in understanding. Literature reviews can stand on their own, but often they are a part of a research paper, and research papers are where you will probably use synthesis most often.

The purpose of a research paper is to derive meaning from a body of information collected through research. It is your job, as the writer, to communicate that meaning to your readers. Doing this requires that you develop an informed and educated opinion of what your research suggests about your subject. Communicating this opinion requires synthesis.

Sample Synthesis

In 1655, an embassy of Dutch Jews led by Rabbi Menassah ben Israel traveled to London to meet with the Commonwealth’s new Lord Protector, Oliver Cromwell. The informal “Readmission” of Jews—who had been expelled from England by royal edict in 1290—resulting from the Whitehall conference was once hailed as a high point in the history of toleration. Yet in recent years, scholars have increasingly challenged the progressive nature of this event, both in its substance and its motivation (Kaplan 2007; Katznelson 2010; Walsham 2006) . “Toleration” in this case, as in many others, did not entail religious freedom or civic equality; Jews in England were granted legal residency and permitted to worship privately, but citizenship, public worship, and the printing of anything that “opposeth the Christian religion” remained off the cards. As for its motivation, Edward Whalley’s twofold argument was representative: the Jews “will bring in much wealth into this Commonwealth: and where wee both pray for theyre conversion and beleeve it shal be, I knowe not why wee shold deny the means” (Marshall 2006, 381–82) 

(Bejan, 2015, p. 1103).

The author of the above passage, Teresa Bejan, has synthesized the work of a number of other scholars (Kaplan, Katznelson, Walsham, and Marshall) to situate her argument.  Note how not all of these scholars are directly quoted, but they are cited because their work forms the basis of Bejan's work.

Key Takeaways

  • Synthesizing allows you to carry an argument or stance you adopt within a paper in your own words, based on conclusions you have come to about the topic.
  • Synthesizing contributes to confidence about your stance and topic.

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Table of Contents: Online Guide to Writing

Chapter 1: College Writing

How Does College Writing Differ from Workplace Writing?

What Is College Writing?

Why So Much Emphasis on Writing?

Chapter 2: The Writing Process

Doing Exploratory Research

Getting from Notes to Your Draft

Introduction

Prewriting - Techniques to Get Started - Mining Your Intuition

Prewriting: Targeting Your Audience

Prewriting: Techniques to Get Started

Prewriting: Understanding Your Assignment

Rewriting: Being Your Own Critic

Rewriting: Creating a Revision Strategy

Rewriting: Getting Feedback

Rewriting: The Final Draft

Techniques to Get Started - Outlining

Techniques to Get Started - Using Systematic Techniques

Thesis Statement and Controlling Idea

Writing: Getting from Notes to Your Draft - Freewriting

Writing: Getting from Notes to Your Draft - Summarizing Your Ideas

Writing: Outlining What You Will Write

Chapter 3: Thinking Strategies

A Word About Style, Voice, and Tone

A Word About Style, Voice, and Tone: Style Through Vocabulary and Diction

Critical Strategies and Writing: Analysis

Critical Strategies and Writing: Evaluation

Critical Strategies and Writing: Persuasion

Critical Strategies and Writing: Synthesis

Developing a Paper Using Strategies

Kinds of Assignments You Will Write

Patterns for Presenting Information

Patterns for Presenting Information: Critiques

Patterns for Presenting Information: Discussing Raw Data

Patterns for Presenting Information: General-to-Specific Pattern

Patterns for Presenting Information: Problem-Cause-Solution Pattern

Patterns for Presenting Information: Specific-to-General Pattern

Patterns for Presenting Information: Summaries and Abstracts

Supporting with Research and Examples

Writing Essay Examinations

Writing Essay Examinations: Make Your Answer Relevant and Complete

Writing Essay Examinations: Organize Thinking Before Writing

Writing Essay Examinations: Read and Understand the Question

Chapter 4: The Research Process

Planning and Writing a Research Paper

Planning and Writing a Research Paper: Ask a Research Question

Planning and Writing a Research Paper: Cite Sources

Planning and Writing a Research Paper: Collect Evidence

Planning and Writing a Research Paper: Decide Your Point of View, or Role, for Your Research

Planning and Writing a Research Paper: Draw Conclusions

Planning and Writing a Research Paper: Find a Topic and Get an Overview

Planning and Writing a Research Paper: Manage Your Resources

Planning and Writing a Research Paper: Outline

Planning and Writing a Research Paper: Survey the Literature

Planning and Writing a Research Paper: Work Your Sources into Your Research Writing

Research Resources: Where Are Research Resources Found? - Human Resources

Research Resources: What Are Research Resources?

Research Resources: Where Are Research Resources Found?

Research Resources: Where Are Research Resources Found? - Electronic Resources

Research Resources: Where Are Research Resources Found? - Print Resources

Structuring the Research Paper: Formal Research Structure

Structuring the Research Paper: Informal Research Structure

The Nature of Research

The Research Assignment: How Should Research Sources Be Evaluated?

The Research Assignment: When Is Research Needed?

The Research Assignment: Why Perform Research?

Chapter 5: Academic Integrity

Academic Integrity

Giving Credit to Sources

Giving Credit to Sources: Copyright Laws

Giving Credit to Sources: Documentation

Giving Credit to Sources: Style Guides

Integrating Sources

Practicing Academic Integrity

Practicing Academic Integrity: Keeping Accurate Records

Practicing Academic Integrity: Managing Source Material

Practicing Academic Integrity: Managing Source Material - Paraphrasing Your Source

Practicing Academic Integrity: Managing Source Material - Quoting Your Source

Practicing Academic Integrity: Managing Source Material - Summarizing Your Sources

Types of Documentation

Types of Documentation: Bibliographies and Source Lists

Types of Documentation: Citing World Wide Web Sources

Types of Documentation: In-Text or Parenthetical Citations

Types of Documentation: In-Text or Parenthetical Citations - APA Style

Types of Documentation: In-Text or Parenthetical Citations - CSE/CBE Style

Types of Documentation: In-Text or Parenthetical Citations - Chicago Style

Types of Documentation: In-Text or Parenthetical Citations - MLA Style

Types of Documentation: Note Citations

Chapter 6: Using Library Resources

Finding Library Resources

Chapter 7: Assessing Your Writing

How Is Writing Graded?

How Is Writing Graded?: A General Assessment Tool

The Draft Stage

The Draft Stage: The First Draft

The Draft Stage: The Revision Process and the Final Draft

The Draft Stage: Using Feedback

The Research Stage

Using Assessment to Improve Your Writing

Chapter 8: Other Frequently Assigned Papers

Reviews and Reaction Papers: Article and Book Reviews

Reviews and Reaction Papers: Reaction Papers

Writing Arguments

Writing Arguments: Adapting the Argument Structure

Writing Arguments: Purposes of Argument

Writing Arguments: References to Consult for Writing Arguments

Writing Arguments: Steps to Writing an Argument - Anticipate Active Opposition

Writing Arguments: Steps to Writing an Argument - Determine Your Organization

Writing Arguments: Steps to Writing an Argument - Develop Your Argument

Writing Arguments: Steps to Writing an Argument - Introduce Your Argument

Writing Arguments: Steps to Writing an Argument - State Your Thesis or Proposition

Writing Arguments: Steps to Writing an Argument - Write Your Conclusion

Writing Arguments: Types of Argument

Appendix A: Books to Help Improve Your Writing

Dictionaries

General Style Manuals

Researching on the Internet

Special Style Manuals

Writing Handbooks

Appendix B: Collaborative Writing and Peer Reviewing

Collaborative Writing: Assignments to Accompany the Group Project

Collaborative Writing: Informal Progress Report

Collaborative Writing: Issues to Resolve

Collaborative Writing: Methodology

Collaborative Writing: Peer Evaluation

Collaborative Writing: Tasks of Collaborative Writing Group Members

Collaborative Writing: Writing Plan

General Introduction

Peer Reviewing

Appendix C: Developing an Improvement Plan

Working with Your Instructor’s Comments and Grades

Appendix D: Writing Plan and Project Schedule

Devising a Writing Project Plan and Schedule

Reviewing Your Plan with Others

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Metasynthesis: An Original Method to Synthesize Qualitative Literature in Psychiatry

Jonathan lachal.

1 AP-HP, Cochin Hospital, Maison de Solenn, Paris, France

2 Université Paris Descartes, Sorbonne Paris Cité, Paris, France

3 CESP, Faculté de médecine, Université Paris-Sud, Faculté de médecine, Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ), INSERM, Université Paris-Saclay, Villejuif, France

Anne Revah-Levy

4 Service Universitaire de Psychiatrie de l’Adolescent, Centre Hospitalier Argenteuil, Argenteuil, France

5 ECSTRA Team, UMR-1153, INSERM, Paris Diderot University, Sorbonne Paris Cité, Paris, France

Massimiliano Orri

6 Université Paris-Sud, Paris, France

Marie Rose Moro

Metasynthesis—the systematic review and integration of findings from qualitative studies—is an emerging technique in medical research that can use many different methods. Nevertheless, the method must be appropriate to the specific scientific field in which it is used. The objective is to describe the steps of a metasynthesis method adapted from Thematic Synthesis and phenomenology to fit the particularities of psychiatric research.

We detail each step of the method used in a metasynthesis published in 2015 on adolescent and young adults suicidal behaviors. We provide clarifications in several methodological points using the latest literature on metasyntheses. The method is described in six steps: define the research question and the inclusion criteria, select the studies, assess their quality, extract and present the formal data, analyze the data, and express the synthesis.

Metasyntheses offer an appropriate balance between an objective framework, a rigorously scientific approach to data analysis and the necessary contribution of the researcher’s subjectivity in the construction of the final work. They propose a third level of comprehension and interpretation that brings original insights, improve the global understanding in psychiatry, and propose immediate therapeutic implications. They should be included in the psychiatric common research toolkit to become better recognized by clinicians and mental health professionals.

The use of qualitative research is proliferating in medical research ( 1 ). Over the past two decades, numerous studies in the field of psychiatry have used a qualitative protocol ( 2 , 3 ), and it has been recognized as a valuable way to “ obtain knowledge that might not be accessible by other methods and to provide extensive data on how people interpret and act upon their illness symptoms ” ( 4 ). What matters most is the respondent’s perspective and the joint construction by the respondent and the researcher of a context-dependent, multiple, and complex reality ( 5 ). In this respect, the qualitative approach is close to that of the psychiatrist: what is important is what the patient feels and experiences and what emerges during the interaction between the patient and the psychiatrist. Indeed, the subjective coconstruction inherent to most of qualitative methods seems especially close to the psychiatric clinical meeting. Both are useful for building up local theory that helps to increase two important aspects of theory: individually relevant theory for clinical work and field-specific general theory for research ( 6 ). Qualitative research offers a thick description (one that encompass all the complexity of the phenomenon, behavior, or context) of a phenomenon and attempts to document the complexity and multiplicity of its experience ( 6 ). Similarly, in their day-to-day clinical work, psychiatrists attribute great importance to complexity and try to place symptoms within the patient’s history, in all of its intricate context—which again plays a crucial role in therapeutic choices.

Some have expressed concern, however, that because qualitative studies are isolated and rarely used to contribute to practical knowledge, they do not play a significant role in the movement toward evidence-based medicine ( 5 ). To alleviate this concern and enable qualitative work to contribute to this movement, an increasing number of teams have worked to develop and apply synthesis methods to these data. Qualitative syntheses refer to a collection of different methods for systematically reviewing and integrating findings from qualitative studies ( 7 ). The aims of such methods are to capture the increasing volume of qualitative research, to facilitate the transfer of knowledge to improve healthcare, and to bring together a broad range of participants and descriptions ( 8 , 9 ). Qualitative syntheses require not only a systematic approach to collecting, analyzing, and interpreting results across multiple studies, but also to develop overarching interpretation emerging from the joint interpretation of the primary studies included in the synthesis ( 10 , 11 ). Therefore, it involves going beyond the findings of any individual study to make the “whole into something more than the parts alone imply” ( 12 ).

Qualitative syntheses are now recognized as valuable tools for examining participants’ meanings, experiences, and perspectives, both deeply (because of the qualitative approach) and broadly (because of the integration of studies from different healthcare contexts and participants). They have been shown to be particularly useful to identify research gaps, to inform the development of primary studies, and to provide evidence for the development, implementation, and evaluation of health interventions ( 13 ). Because of this growing importance, an important work has been done in the last ten years, in order to ensure the quality of qualitative syntheses, such as: describing the methods to ensure reproducibility, develop tools for assessing the quality of the primary articles, and establish reporting guidelines [see, for example, the ENTREQ statement ( 13 ), the GRADE-Cerqual protocol ( 14 ), and the Cochrane or EVIDENT works ( 15 , 16 )].

However, despite some qualitative syntheses have been successfully conducted in the field of mental health ( 2 , 3 , 17 – 20 ), no study considers the methodological specificities inherent to psychiatric epistemological stance ( 7 ). Filling this gap has been one of the aims of our team since 2011. In this methodological article, we aimed to discuss the challenge of implementing metasynthesis to improve the understanding of youths suicide. In this study, we adapted the Thematic Synthesis developed by Thomas and Harden and incorporate a phenomenological approach in order to deal with new rigor with general as well as psychiatric issues ( 21 ). We will present each step of the method (Figure ​ (Figure1) 1 ) and will propose methodological discussions. The detailed description of the findings can be found elsewhere ( 22 ).

An external file that holds a picture, illustration, etc.
Object name is fpsyt-08-00269-g001.jpg

Distribution in time for articles included in the metasynthesis.

Conducting a Metasynthesis

Before start—constitution of a research group.

The constitution of the research group and the definition of the study method are an important step before engaging in any synthesis work. The researcher must work in collaboration with researchers of diverse backgrounds ( 9 ). A collaborative approach improves quality and rigor and subjects the analytical process to group reflexivity ( 11 ). The research team should include members trained in qualitative synthesis as well as those expert in the topic being studied ( 23 ). As there are many ways to do qualitative syntheses, the research team will have to choose one of them adapted to the research question and to the expertise of the group ( 15 ).

Our team is composed of adolescent and child psychiatrists and psychologists from France and elsewhere (Italy, Chile, and Brazil) and focuses on developing qualitative research ( 24 – 26 ) and metasynthesis in adolescent psychiatry and related fields ( 22 , 27 , 28 ). Our method is adapted from thematic synthesis ( 21 ), which combines and adapts approaches from both metaethnography and grounded theory ( 10 ). Metaethnography, as well as Thematic Synthesis, takes place in six or seven steps from data collection to text coding and finally writing the synthesis. Original authors of metaethnography were trained in grounded theory, a qualitative method developed in the social sciences, laying on conceptual coding combine to construct a new theory. Thematic synthesis allows the researcher to include much more studies in the synthesis and to use tools coming from quantitative reviews, as systematic literature searches. This method perfectly suits to psychiatric research: user-friendliness for both researchers and readers; standardized in its most subjective steps but flexible, to make it adaptable to various patients or situations, such as children, patients with psychological disabilities or psychotic disorders, and to different researchers’ backgrounds (e.g., phenomenology, psychology, or psychoanalysis). We add a phenomenological perspective with a coding close to Smith’s interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) ( 29 ). IPA is also a qualitative method of coding a text, laying on phenomenology and hermeneutics. The level of coding is what makes sense to the reader (for example, a letter, a word, a sentence, the absence of a word, or a sentence). Phenomenology allows avoiding never-ending debates about theories of the psyche and focuses on the patient experience which is at the heart of psychiatric care. We understand that published manuscripts provide only thin data sets that are not eligible for a complete phenomenological analysis. Rather we tried to let ourselves guided by the impressions the text generated in us. It was like one article was assimilated as one participant, as it is mainly the voice of the main writer. We applied Smith’s tips on how reading and coding the data.

Define the Research Question and the Selection Criteria

Defining the research question is a crucial substep ( 9 ). This question must be broad enough to be of interest but small enough to be manageable ( 5 , 23 ) and has already been explored by enough studies ( 30 ). Inclusion and exclusion criteria may be fixed on methodological aspects, on participants selected, on thematic focuses or language specificities ( 9 , 31 ).

Youths suicide is a focus that were suitable for qualitative methods. We chose this subject because youth suicide is a major public health issue worldwide as well as a complex disorder that encompasses medical, sociological, anthropological, cultural, psychological, and philosophical issues. It has been widely explored by qualitative research. The lack of effectiveness of current care let us think that new insights could be expected by qualitative exploration. A first selection of articles, as well as an existing literature review on the topic, served to specify some starting information and enable initial decisions, including the definition of the research question, specification of the scope and the inclusion criteria. Then, the questions were constructed through reading and confronting these articles with our first qualitative study in the theme and our clinical knowledge of the theme.

As we wanted to study the therapeutic relationship and barriers to effective care, we decided to include research concerning not only the population being treated (the adolescents and young adults, and their parents), but also the healthcare professionals who care for these patients. A first screening of the literature showed us that optimal scope required a large range of ages, from 15 to 30 years old. The common thread linking all these youths was the importance of their parents in their everyday life. We chose to include only qualitative research, because it remains unclear how to deal with mixed method (combining qualitative and quantitative datasets) ( 23 ). Although databases contain articles in different languages, we chose to include only articles published in English (as most studies are now published in English) and French (as it is our first language) ( 22 , 27 ).

Study Selection

There is a debate on the choice of sampling method, some authors using an exhaustive sampling, some others, an expansive one ( 30 ). We privileged exhaustive systematic searches ( 32 ) since our method allowed large samples and because our target audience was the mental health community, which is accustomed to quantitative systematic reviews ( 9 ). Only journal articles were included, as most scientific data are published in this form ( 33 ). The first selection of articles served to specify the choice of keywords and databases for the electronic search. To ensure both sensitivity and specificity, we decided to use a combined approach of thesaurus terms and free-text terms. This technique maximizes the number of potentially relevant articles retrieved and ensures the highest level of rigor ( 34 ). Keywords were established during research team meetings, and were reported in the article or as supplemental material for more clarity ( 35 ). As each database has its own thesaurus terms, and as keywords encompasses different meanings in each discipline ( 36 ), the keywords were specific for each one.

We used four clusters of keywords: (i) those that concern the topic of interest (such as suicide, obesity, or anorexia nervosa), (ii) those that concern the participants (gender, age, profession, etc.), (iii) those that concern qualitative research (such as qualitative research, interviews, focus groups , or content analysis ), and (iv) those that concern perceptions and understanding, often called “views” ( 33 ) (such as knowledge, perception, self-concept, feeling , or attitude ). The last cluster takes all its importance in the phenomenological perspective of the analysis. An example of the final algorithm used (in the PubMed Web search) is provided in Table ​ Table1 1 .

Algorithm used in the PubMed Web search from Ref. ( 22 ).

Similar work was conducted to select the databases. After consulting reference articles ( 33 , 37 , 38 ), we decided to conduct the search in five electronic databases covering medical, psychological, social, and nursing sciences: MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL, PsycINFO, and Social Science Citation Index (SSCI). Not long ago, CINAHL was the most important database for finding qualitative research, but as qualitative research proliferates in medical research, more and more qualitative articles are referenced in MEDLINE ( 33 ) and EMBASE. PsycINFO was a good database for finding qualitative articles with a psychological approach. We decided to add SSCI to broaden and complexity the outlook with a sociological point of view. We followed recommendations published on MEDLINE ( 39 ), CINAHL ( 40 ), EMBASE ( 41 ), and PsycINFO ( 42 ) for choosing search terms. Finally, we decided not to use the methodological databases’ filters for qualitative research, as these have undergone little replication and validation ( 43 ).

We decided to include articles published only in or after 1990. Two points impelled this decision: first, there was very little qualitative research on suicide before the year 2000 and even less before the 1990s (Figure ​ (Figure2). 2 ). Second, we chose to consider as outdated research findings and results published more than 20 years ago were outdated, given the evolution of medical practices ( 44 ). However, this choice must be adapted to the topic of metasynthesis.

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Flowchart of the metasynthesis steps.

The results of database searches were entered into a bibliographic software program (Zotero©) for automatic removal of duplicates. Then, two authors independently screened all titles and abstracts and selected the studies according to our inclusion criteria (defined earlier). If the abstract was not sufficient, we read the full text. Disagreements were resolved during working group meetings. Full texts of potentially relevant articles were then examined, and a second selection was performed. At this phase, we also checked each article’s reference list looking for new articles we might have overlooked. The final selection represented from 2 to 3% of the total initially obtained. This rate is consistent with the findings of other metasyntheses ( 23 ). For clarity, the selection process was also presented in a flowchart (Figure ​ (Figure3). 3 ). We referred to STARLITE principles to report our literature search ( 45 ) (Table ​ (Table2 2 ).

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Flowchart for selecting studies from Ref. ( 22 ).

STARLITE principles applied to the literature search report of Ref. ( 22 ).

Quality Assessment of Included Studies

There is no consensus about whether quality criteria should be applied to qualitative research, or, for those who think they should be, about which criteria to use and how to apply them. Nevertheless a growing number of researchers are choosing to appraise studies for metasyntheses ( 46 ) and some authors state that a good metasynthesis can no longer avoid this methodological step ( 7 ). The reasons and methods for quality assessment fit into three general approaches: assessment of study conduct, appraisal of study reporting, and an implicit judgment of the content and utility of the findings for theory development ( 13 ). There is certainly not one best appraisal tool, but rather a wide choice of good ones ( 8 ).

We chose the Critical Appraisal Skills Program (CASP) ( 47 ), which is the most frequently used instrument ( 46 ), addresses all the principles and assumptions underpinning qualitative research ( 13 ). It is one of the instruments recommended by the Cochrane Collaboration ( 48 ) and has been used in several important thematic analyses of medical topics. As proposed by Boeije et al., we weighted our assessment by applying a three-point scale to each criterion (0 = criterion not met; 1/P = criterion partially met; 2/T = criterion totally met) ( 49 ) (Table ​ (Table3 3 ).

Evaluation of the quality of the studies according to the Critical Appraisal Skill Programme (CASP) from Ref. ( 22 ).

a Number of studies .

We have not excluded any study on quality criteria. We think that the goal of the quality assessment is not to help selecting the more rigorous article. Either, this step is important to improve the overall rigor of the metasynthesis: by easily evaluating the quality of each article, the readers will have the possibility to make their own evaluation of the quality of the results of the metasynthesis ( 9 ). To enhance the rigor of the synthesis, we published the full results of this assessment ( 50 ).

Extracting and Presenting the Formal Data

To understand the context of each study, readers need the formal data about each study: the number and type of participants in each study, its location, and the method of data collection and of analysis. These data must be extracted and presented in a way that enables readers to form their own opinions about the studies included. We presented these data systematically, in a table with the following headings:

  • – Identification of the study.
  • – Summary of the study’s aim.
  • – Country where the study took place.
  • – Details about the participants: age, gender, type, and number.
  • – Method of data collection (e.g., semistructured interviews or focus groups).
  • – Analysis method (grounded theory, phenomenology, thematic, etc.).

Data Analysis

This step is probably the most subjective: its performance is highly influenced by the authors’ backgrounds ( 13 ). There are many ways to analyze, as many as there are authors. All researchers build on their personal knowledge and background for the analysis, sometimes described as bricolage , following Claude Levi-Strauss: “ the bricoleur combines techniques, methods, and materials to work on any number of projects and creations. Whereas a typical construction process might be limited by the history or original use of individual pieces, the bricoleur works outside of such limitations, reorganizing pieces to construct new meaning. In other words, unlike linear, step-by-step processes, the bricoleur steps back and works without exhaustive preliminary specifications ” ( 51 , 52 ). The synthesis will inevitably be only one possible interpretation of the data ( 9 ), as it depends on the authors’ judgment and insights ( 21 ). The qualitative synthesis does not result simply from a coding process, but rather from the researchers’ configuration of segments of coded data “ assembled into a novel whole ” ( 53 ).

In this process, the multidisciplinary team is essential to assess rigor and develop richer and more complex understandings. Triangulation of the analyses is enhanced when researchers with diverse background consider the same data set ( 11 ). “ Collaborative working not only improve quality and rigour, but subjects the analytical process to group reflexivity ” ( 54 ).

The first step of this process involved carefully reading and rereading each study ( 21 ). It is an active reading, with the intention of appraising, familiarizing, identifying, extracting, recording, organizing, comparing, relating, mapping, stimulating and verifying. In other words, it is reading with “ the intention of collating a synthesizable set of accounts ” ( 11 ).

The second step was coding: at least two different researchers coded each part of the data (whole manuscripts), performing a line-by-line coding, close to the phenomenological analysis described by Smith et al. ( 29 ).

In the third step, the codes were grouped and categorized into a hierarchical tree structure. This step is very close to the translation work described by Noblit and Hare ( 12 ). It involves comparing themes across articles to match themes from one article with those from another while ensuring that each key theme captured similar themes from different articles. We obtained a list of descriptive themes very close to the data.

In our example, we highlighted the sentence “You’re going to school, you’re getting an education, but you’re depressed” and coded it depressed . The code is then combined with others in a theme named “The experience of distress.”

Finally, in the last and most subjective step of the analysis, we generated analytical themes, which depended largely on the “judgment and insights of the reviewers” ( 21 ). This step is very similar the development of third-order interpretations—“ the synthesis of both first and second order constructs into a new model or theory about a phenomenon ” ( 23 )—and requires going beyond the content of original studies to achieve a higher level of interpretation and going beyond the descriptive synthesis to propose a more conceptual line-of-argument ( 21 , 23 ). This work has two types of underlying aims. The first type may be theoretical, by enabling a higher level of comprehension of a phenomenon; in medical science, this may be to better describe and understand a pathology. The second type may be to answer clinical questions about pathology and care directly.

In our example, we clearly fulfilled the second aim. The results leaded us to discuss new insights about suicidal youths’ care. The experience of incomprehension shared by all the protagonists of the care interferes with the capacity for empathy of both family members and professionals. We could use the concepts of intersubjectivity to witness the violence driven by the suicidal act.

Writing the Synthesis

Throughout the analysis process, the authors build themes that take place in the story they are telling about the participant’s experience ( 21 ). Then, the expression of the synthesis is our story of the studied phenomenon.

The results of the metasynthesis consist of the themes that we developed in the analysis. They are built by first and second order constructs. We did not define actual third-order themes; rather, third-order constructs helped us to build the synthesis into a story. We organized the themes into superordinate themes, which are interpretations of the themes and can be considered third-order interpretations.

For example, in one of the developed theme called the experience of distress we described that the young people experienced depressive symptoms. The participants described feelings of sadness, sorrow, mental pain, despair, detachment, anger, and irritability . The authors interpreted that as despair . We organized all these closed related feeling into the individual experience of distress . We decide not to speak about depression , first because some healthcare professionals repeated that they may diagnose depression “ but certainly not on a routine basis ” ( 22 ), then because we adopted a phenomenological approach and we felt that distress encompasses a broader and more complex experience.

Metasynthesis results prepare the framework for the discussion, the most interpretative part of the review, where hypothesis and proposals are presented. We offer our understanding of the participants’ experience. Both our presentation and our discourse are influenced by our aim: to answer clinical questions by suggesting specific actions or considerations for care; the discussion and the answers are intended to be useful for the readers of our article, as well as for us ( 23 ).

Our conclusion is that “ the violence of the message of a suicidal act and the fears associated with death lead to incomprehension and interfere with the capacity for empathy of both family members and professionals. The issue in treatment is to be able to witness this violence so that the patient feels understood and heard, and thus to limit recurrences ” ( 22 ). This issue is clear and simple and it leads to an immediate application to clinical practice which is described in the implication for practice chapter.

Finally, we discuss the limitation of the findings. The principal limitations were methodological (with our method, the access to participants’ data is partial), and in the sampling (we didn’t take in consideration the influence of gender on the experience of suicidal behavior). That exercise enhances the credibility of the publication, enabling readers to measure the importance and generalizability of the findings.

The written synthesis has to fulfill the standard for reporting synthesis of qualitative research. We chose to refer to Tong and al. ENTREQ statement ( 13 ) attached to the publication.

Our method is based on Thomas and Harden Thematic Synthesis ( 21 ). After a broad-scale review of literature on the topic of metasynthesis, we have decided to clarify the definition of some aspects of the method and modify or expand others, because we wanted both a medical and a psychological approach. For example, we opted to use a systematic search method and a weighted version of the CASP to assess quality.

Most metasynthesis authors argue that these reviews achieve a third-order level of interpretation, that is, that they are more than the sum of their results. If, as we think, qualitative research can achieve a moderate level of generalization with clinical implications, metasyntheses may transform these findings into more highly abstracted and generalizable theoretical frameworks. We “ push their findings toward the nomothetic end of the idiographic-nomothetic continuum ” ( 44 ). Qualitative specialists certainly do not shy away from stressing the importance of context in their studies, or from arguing that the context of one study may not be applicable to others. It is true that, in a way, metasyntheses decontextualize concepts to attain greater generalizability ( 44 ). But we can relate this act to the response of clinicians reading a qualitative article: they will try to apply the concepts to their own situations ( 21 ). Authors of metasyntheses are proposing their own interpretation of the concept and its generalizability. The scientific value of metasynthesis lies in its role as a summary of several studies and as the interpretation of varying context, as well as in its ability to weight each result and to propose greater generalizability.

Qualitative research is an invaluable method for gaining new insights into mental disorders ( 6 ). Its development in recent years requires that we improve methods for synthesizing their results. We think this way of doing metasynthesis is appropriate to psychiatric research in its intermediate position that stresses both progress in the general comprehension of disorders and direct clinical implications. It offers an appropriate balance between three components: an objective framework, which includes the selection, inclusion, and appraisal of studies; a rigorously scientific approach to data analysis; and the necessary contribution of the researcher’s subjectivity in the construction of the final work. The balance for a qualitative metasynthesis is, we think, very similar to the clinical approach to each patient. It necessitates a robust scientific background, a rigorous step-by-step—symptom by symptom—progression, and finally a part of art that depends on each clinician: the subjective part of therapy.

Finally, we think that metasyntheses enable insights that no other method can provide. Qualitative research sheds new light on scientific questions by emphasizing the participants’ subjective understanding and experience ( 6 ). Metasynthesis proposes a third level of comprehension and interpretation that brings original insights. In our study ( 22 ), we emphasized an original point in the relationship that was no found in any result from each primary study: the difficulty of professionals and parents to understand and cope with suicide as an obstacle to the care of the suicidal adolescent. Therefore, our study’s analysis went deeper and proposed original results.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments and final approval: JL, AR-L, MO, and MM. Conducted the literature review: JL and MO. Performed the experiments: JL, MO, and AR-L. Wrote the article: JL (all the article), AR-L (analysis), MO (introduction and analysis), and MM (discussion).

Conflict of Interest Statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Jo Ann Cahn for revising our English.

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COMMENTS

  1. How To Write Synthesis In Research: Example Steps

    Synthesizing simply means combining. Instead of summarizing the main points of each source in turn, you put together the ideas and findings of multiple sources in order to make an overall point. At the most basic level, this involves looking for similarities and differences between your sources.

  2. Synthesis

    By synthesizing research, you are showing that you can combine current information in your field of study and add a new interpretation or analysis of those sources. What steps do I need to take to reach synthesis? To effectively synthesize the literature, you must first critically read the research on your topic.

  3. Synthesizing Sources

    Synthesizing sources involves combining the work of other scholars to provide new insights. It's a way of integrating sources that helps situate your work in relation to existing research. Synthesizing sources involves more than just summarizing.

  4. Research Guides: How to Write a Literature Review: 6. Synthesize

    A self-guided tutorial that walks you through the process of conducting a Literature Review. Synthesize This is the point where you sort articles by themes or categories in preparation for writing your lit review.

  5. Guide to Synthesis Essays: How to Write a Synthesis Essay

    Written by MasterClass Last updated: Aug 19, 2021 • 4 min read The writing process for composing a good synthesis essay requires curiosity, research, and original thought to argue a certain point or explore an idea.

  6. Understanding the Impacts of Research Synthesis

    1. Introduction. Research or scientific synthesis is the integration and assessment of knowledge and research findings pertinent to a particular issue with the aim of increasing the generality and applicability of, and access to, those findings (Hampton & Parker 2011, Magliocca et al., 2014, Baron et al. 2017).Synthesis of existing research and case studies can also generate new knowledge.

  7. What Synthesis Methodology Should I Use? A Review and Analysis of

    In the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) definition of knowledge translation (KT), research or knowledge synthesis is an integral component . Yet, with few exceptions [131] - [132] , very little of the research synthesis literature even mentions the relationship of synthesis to KT nor does it discuss strategies to facilitate the ...

  8. Synthesizing Research

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  9. Synthesis

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  10. Literature Synthesis 101: How To Guide + Examples

    Putting your thoughts onto paper really helps you flesh out your thinking. As you do this, don't just write down the answers - instead, think about what they mean in terms of the research gap you'll present, as well as the methodological approach you'll take. Your literature synthesis needs to lay the groundwork for these two things, so ...

  11. Synthesizing Sources

    Writing a research paper usually requires synthesizing the available sources in order to provide new insight or a different perspective into your particular topic (as opposed to simply restating what each individual source says about your research topic). Note that synthesizing is not the same as summarizing.

  12. Synthesize

    A synthesis matrix helps you record the main points of each source and document how sources relate to each other. After summarizing and evaluating your sources, arrange them in a matrix or use a citation manager to help you see how they relate to each other and apply to each of your themes or variables. By arranging your sources by theme or ...

  13. Synthesis in Research: Home

    Synthesis is a form of analysis related to comparison and contrast, classification and division. On a basic level, synthesis involves bringing together two or more sources, looking for themes in each. In synthesis, you search for the links between various materials in order to make your point.

  14. A Guide to Evidence Synthesis: What is Evidence Synthesis?

    Evidence syntheses are conducted in an unbiased, reproducible way to provide evidence for practice and policy-making, as well as to identify gaps in the research. Evidence syntheses may also include a meta-analysis, a more quantitative process of synthesizing and visualizing data retrieved from various studies.

  15. PDF Help…I've Been Asked to Synthesize!

    Writing a strong researched paper requires the ability to synthesize—or combine elements of several sources—to help you make a point. The purpose of the Multiple Source Essay is to give students the chance to practice this process of "synthesis". In English 1120, synthesis is not

  16. Qualitative research synthesis: An appreciative and critical

    Qualitative research synthesis is a diverse set of methods for combining the data or the results of multiple studies on a topic to generate new knowledge, theory and applications. Use of qualitative research synthesis is rapidly expanding across disciplines.

  17. Critical Strategies and Writing: Synthesis

    Synthesizing allows you to carry an argument or stance you adopt within a paper in your own words, based on conclusions you have come to about the topic. Synthesizing contributes to confidence about your stance and topic. Mailing Address: 3501 University Blvd. East, Adelphi, MD 20783. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution ...

  18. How to Write a Synthesis Essay, WIth Examples

    A synthesis essay is a type of essay that combines points, data, and evidence from multiple sources and turns them into one idea that the writing revolves around. In other words, the writer synthesizes their own idea using other sources' research and points.

  19. Synthesis Essay

    By definition, in an argumentative synthesis essay, a writer argues or persuades a reader of a main claim or thesis statement by using information gained through research. A synthesis...

  20. Metasynthesis: An Original Method to Synthesize Qualitative Literature

    Metasynthesis—the systematic review and integration of findings from qualitative studies—is an emerging technique in medical research that can use many different methods. Nevertheless, the method must be appropriate to the specific scientific field in which it is used. The objective is to describe the steps of a metasynthesis method adapted ...

  21. PDF 1. Planning a Synthesis Paper

    The term "synthesis" means to combine separate elements to form a whole. Writing teachers often use this term when they assign students to write a literature review or other paper that requires the use of a variety of sources.

  22. Research synthesis

    Research synthesis or evidence synthesis is the process of combining the results of multiple primary research studies aimed at testing the same conceptual hypothesis. It may be applied to either quantitative [1] or qualitative research. [2]

  23. Synthesis Paper

    Synthesis Paper. Synthesis, or synthesizing, is a mode of writing that groups various sources together in a way that makes the relationships between the sources clear. Usually, these sources revolve around the same subject.