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Systematic Research Synthesis to Inform Policy, Practice and Democratic Debate
Abstract
Issues surrounding the role and provision of evidence to inform policy and practice have become topical and problematic. The context of these controversies is discussed, with particular emphasis on systematic approaches to synthesising research evidence. We contrast the ‘positivist’ emphasis with interpretative qualitative synthesis, and suggest that many of the viewpoints have become unnecessarily and unhelpfully polarised. The methods for systematic research syntheses will vary as they depend on the question being asked. The process is transparent, allowing readers to see how conclusions have been reached, and forms the basis of reviews which can be updated to help provide sustainable and relevant evidence.
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Cited by
Popay, J., Roberts, H., Sowden, A., Petticrew, M., Arai, L., Rodgers, M., Britten, N., Roen, K., & Duffy, S. (2006) · Lancaster University · doi:10.13140/2.1.1018.4643 · Cited by 2,070
Mentoring beginning teachers: What we know and what we don’t
Hobson, A. J., Ashby, P., Malderez, A., & Tomlinson, P. D. (2009) · Teaching and Teacher Education · doi:10.1016/j.tate.2008.09.001 · Cited by 1,146
Adams, R. J., Smart, P., & Huff, A. S. (2017) · International Journal of Management Reviews · doi:10.1111/ijmr.12102 · Cited by 995
O’Mara-Eves, A., Thomas, J., McNaught, J., Miwa, M., & Ananiadou, S. (2015) · Systematic Reviews · doi:10.1186/2046-4053-4-5 · Cited by 681
The Benefits and Challenges of Using Systematic Reviews in International Development Research
Mallett, R., Hagen-Zanker, J., Slater, R., & Duvendack, M. (2012) · Journal of Development Effectiveness · doi:10.1080/19439342.2012.711342 · Cited by 565
Metadata
- Authors
- Gough, D., & Elbourne, D.
- Venue
- Social Policy and Society
- Publisher
- Cambridge University Press (CUP)
- Published
- 2002-06-24
- Volume
- 1
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 225-236
- ISSN
- 1474-7464 (ISSN-L)
- 1475-3073
- OpenAlex
- W2124542805
- Cited by
- 161
- References
- 0
- FWCI
- 7.68
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
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Contains information from the Semantic Scholar Academic Graph Datasets, made available under the ODC Attribution License (ODC-BY 1.0).
Semantic Scholar’s data is described in: Kinney, R., et al. (2023). The Semantic Scholar Open Data Platform. arXiv:2301.10140.