RMP.7:2 - Problem

A collection can look like a body of corroborating evidence while sharing one underlying study, selecting favorable results or combining incompatible claims. A pooled number can conceal that its inputs measure different things. A common theme can conceal a consequential difference in setting or meaning.

The opposite response is to abandon every synthesis that contains disagreement or imperfect sources. That discards compatible quantitative combination, a useful interpretive account or a precise explanation of what the corpus cannot establish. Another unnecessary cost is recreating an adequate review merely to produce a new dated record.

The practitioner needs a corpus answer whose form follows the research question, the source relations and the criticism that matters.