Synthesizing Literature
Literature Synthesis
Synthesizing literature is a process of understanding the contents of multiple scholarly articles in relation to each other. This process involves understanding and summarizing the contents of each article individually and then creating a matrix to help compare and contrast the articles with each other and try to understand what the evidence of all of the articles means together. What are the differences in what the articles conclude? How does the evidence in each article compare in sample size and selection? How does the methodology of each study compare?
To the right are links to guides that may help you find a method of synthesizing literature that works for you. Each one suggests a slightly different process. One of them may work great for you, or you can take those ideas and create your own system for bringing together the ideas and evidence in your articles. The exact process that you choose to follow is not particularly important so long as it is a process that helps you keep track of the various articles and their insights.
Matrix Model
Health Sciences Literature Review Made Easy by Call Number: ebookPublication Date: 2013(earlier editions in print available)
Provide guidance for both undergraduate and graduate students in the health sciences and specifically, nursing.
Synthesis Guides
- The Literature Review: A Research JourneyA guide from Harvard about the Literature Review process and synthesizing the information you discover in the process.
- Literature Review: SynthesisA guide from Central Michigan University that suggests a possible organizational matrix that may be useful in helping you synthesize your research.
- Synthesis MatrixA guide from the Writing Center at Ashford University that presents a similar, but slightly different, matrix to the one from Central Michigan.
- SynthesizeA page about synthesis from a guide from Johns Hopkins University