Synthesis of Evidence: Principles, Approaches, and Methods

This course will provide students a foundation to conduct a critical synthesis appraisal of the state of the science in the student’s area of research interest. Emphasis will include empirical literature across disciplines, with attention to variation in concept definitions. Students will gain skills in searching, critiquing, analyzing, synthesizing, and re-presenting or re-conceptualizing a focused body of empirical literature to form a current state of substantive knowledge. The students will engage in peer review by presenting and critiquing a current body of knowledge in their area of research interest. This knowledge base will include exploration into concept analysis, integrative and systematic reviews, meta-analysis and meta-synthesis. The course outcome will be preparation of a plan for a focused integrative review that will be further developed for the candidacy paper.