Government Social Research
Last Updated: 16/9/2008
Qualitative methods for synthesising findings from different studies are less well developed than quantitative methods, largely because systematic reviews have historically focused on answering impact questions. For impact questions statistical methods such as meta-analysis are appropriate to be able to measure the effect that an intervention has had. However, qualitative data should play an equally important part in answering REA questions and the methods below will help to synthesise studies that use this data. The key is to use the most appropriate method to answer your REA question.
This type of synthesis combines the results of empirical narrative research – usually spoken and/or written data - into structured narratives or summary tables. Results from different types of empirical research can be synthesised in this way, including experimental evaluative research and survey research.
Popay et al (2006) have developed an over-arching framework to guide the conduct of a narrative synthesis. The framework can be obtained by emailing Jacqueline Cox at Lancaster University.
Conceptual synthesis brings together different understandings or concepts about the World to create a new concept or concepts. For example, meta-ethnography combines the results of different ethnographic studies to create an understanding of the phenomena under study greater than the individual ethnographic studies.