Synthesizing the Evidence
Abstract
This chapter contains sections titled: Introduction Narrative Synthesis of Quantitative Studies Narrative Synthesis in Three Steps Best Evidence Synthesis (BES) Vote Counting Cross-Design Synthesis Best Available Evidence Triangulation in Systematic Reviews Reviewing Complex Evidence Synthesizing Qualitative and Mixed Methods Research Meta-Analysis: The Statistical Synthesis of Quantitative Studies Forest Plots Software: Statistical Packages for Meta-Analysis Criticisms of Meta-Analysis The Meta-Analytic Sausage Machine Improving Research Synthesis
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There is considerable academic debate regarding the appropriateness of meta-analysis in the context of clinical heterogeneity.
“There is considerable academic debate regarding the appropriateness of meta-analysis in the context of such clinical heterogeneity [43,44].”
From Interventions targeting social isolation in older people: a systematic review (2011) · cites this paper as [44]
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Interventions targeting social isolation in older people: a systematic review
Dickens, A. P., Richards, S. H., Greaves, C. J., & Campbell, J. L. (2011) · BMC Public Health · doi:10.1186/1471-2458-11-647 · Cited by 767 · see citing works
- Authors
- Petticrew, M. P., & Roberts, H. M.
- Venue
- Systematic Reviews in the Social Sciences
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2006-01
- Pages
- 164-214
- OpenAlex
- W1526409901
- Cited by
- 12
- References
- 56
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 2 · 2021: 2 · 2019: 1 · 2017: 1 · 2016: 1 · 2015: 1
- Type
- other
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › Statistics, Probability and Uncertainty › Meta-analysis and systematic reviews
- Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › Management Science and Operations Research › Evaluation and Performance Assessment
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Health Sciences Research and Education
- Keywords
- evidence synthesis, narrative synthesis, best evidence synthesis, vote counting, best evidence, triangulation, systematic reviews, meta-analysis, forest plots, qualitative evidence synthesis
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Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
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