"A synthesis or systematic review is a comprehensive summary of all the research evidence related to a focused clinical question." (DiCenso et al., 2009)
Definition
- A research study design that draws conclusions by analyzing all the single studies conducted on a topic
- The most common are: Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (like SR but uses statistics to draw conclusions from research).
Characteristics
- Longer in length (10-15 pages, average)
- Includes many references
- Methodology will discuss the search strategy used - which databases, what keywords, limiters...
- Study of many studies on a topic
Level 4 examples - see Level 3 examples for synopses of the first two reviews
