Research Guides: Psychology Department Research Guide, College of Arts & Sciences: Evidence Synthesis Research

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Anyone who is interested in conducting a knowledge synthesis, especially those who are undertaking this endeavor for the first time. This includes students, reviewers, librarians, clinicians, social scientists, lawyers, activists and decision makers, and researchers not familiar with the range of knowledge synthesis.

Covidence Introduction and Tutorials (4 minutes)

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Common types of evidence synthesis

What review is right for you?
This tool is designed to provide guidance and supporting material to reviewers on methods for the conduct and reporting of knowledge synthesis.

Review type decision tree

decision tree for types of systematic review

Decision tree from Cornell University Library.

What is a Systematic Review

A Systematic Review is a well-structured research question.
A systematic review aims to summarize existing scholarly research on a specific topic. The resources for a systematic review can and often include both published and unpublished studies.
Systematic Reviews are intended to be unbiased and reproducible scholarly research.
Systematic Reviews are not the same as literature reviews; they are more intensive.

Systematic reviews: 1: Overview & types of review. Library Guides. (n.d.). Retrieved October 14, 2022.

Campbell Collaboration
Campbell Collaborations looks at reviews that are outside of clinical medicine.

Systematic review: Basics of systematic review. LibGuides. (2022, November 4). Retrieved December 3, 2022, from https://libguides.lib.cuhk.edu.hk/systematic_review

Evidence synthesis steps

The exact order, number, and type of the steps you take in your research process, and what is involved in each step, will vary depending on the research protocol you develop in conjunction with your research partners. In this guide we have broken out the most common steps and provide resources for further guidance within each section in the hope that we can help you determine your own evidence synthesis steps.

Thinking about a publication?

Campbell Collaboration
How do Campbell systematic reviews differ from less reliable systematic reviews?

Campbell reviews must include a systematic search for unpublished reports, to avoid publication bias.
Campbell reviews are usually international in scope.
A protocol (project plan) for the review is developed in advance and also undergoes peer review.
Study inclusion and coding decisions are carried out by at least two reviewers who work independently and compare results.
Study quality is appraised.
Campbell reviews undergo peer review and editorial review.
Campbell reviews provide answers for decisionmakers by using rigorous methods to synthesize evidence, including, where appropriate, statistical meta-analysis of quantitative evidence and theory-based analysis of qualitative evidence.

See all the Campbell systematic reviews on our journal website: click here.
Campbell Systematic Reviews: Better Evidence for a Better World