ABSTRACT
In order to identify the composite evidence on the subject being reviewed, the findings from the evaluation of the individual papers included in that review need to be synthesized. Evidence can be synthesized using a variety of methods, including meta-analysis, meta-synthesis, and mixed methods synthesis. In literature review methodology, where the types of evidence included are often heterogeneous, narrative synthesis is commonly the most appropriate approach to use. Narrative synthesis uses non-statistical approaches to identifying and synthesizing the findings from all the papers that are included in a review. This is usually achieved by developing themes, codes or categories into which the information from the different sources that you have can be allocated. In general, though, narrative synthesis follows four distinct stages: developing themes or categories, summarizing individual papers, synthesizing the themes or categories from across papers, and finally reviewing the quality of the process of synthesis.
