RMP.7:4 - Solution
Recover the question and actual corpus, distinguish the contributions and their dependence, appraise the inference each can support, and perform the justified synthesis. Return the answer with its consequential transformations, uncertainty and scope.
RMP.7:4.1 - State the question and test the supplied answer
Name the subject, comparison or interpretive concern, relevant context and period, and the kind of conclusion wanted. A mean difference, explanation, account of experiences and claim about a historical sequence ask different questions even when they concern the same topic.
Inspect any supplied synthesis for the same question, relevant source coverage, Method, actual findings, limitations and current receiving use. If it already supplies an adequate answer, return that answer with the source and qualifications that change reliance. Reopen only a changed premise or uncovered question.
Otherwise establish the actual source set against the selected design: what was eligible, sought, obtained, excluded or unavailable, and why those choices bear on this answer. Systematic-coverage claims need the corresponding search and selection work. A deliberately bounded corpus can answer its bounded question without claiming to represent every study.
Return a changed question to RMP.1, an unsettled synthesis design to RMP.2, an operational problem to RMP.3 or an actual-material problem to RMP.4. An adequate supplied input needs no recreation of those earlier activities.
RMP.7:4.2 - Recover distinct contributions before counting support
Distinguish a report from its underlying studies and material, a source author’s interpretation from the material it interprets, and either from the proposed synthesis finding.
| Source relation | Consequence for synthesis |
|---|---|
| Several reports concern one study | Combine their useful information into the study’s contribution; resolve discrepancies and retain supplementary detail. Repeated reports do not supply independent study estimates. |
| One report contains several studies | Recover the actual studies and their relation; the document count does not determine the number of independent contributions. |
| Samples, controls, records or data overlap | Preserve the overlap and use an analysis that accounts for it, or a justified selection or grouping. A different title or author list does not establish independence. |
| Later accounts copy or interpret one earlier source | Recover the common source and the distinct interpretations. Copying is evidence of transmission; independent corroboration needs an independent evidential contribution. |
| A source adds context or a different outcome | Retain that contribution for the question it can answer. Its usefulness does not make it another estimate of the same quantity. |
Keep contrary findings and disagreements between reports visible. If dependence cannot be recovered well enough for the intended combination, qualify or withhold that combination and state what comparison remains possible.
RMP.7:4.3 - Appraise support for the proposed findings
Use the criteria appropriate to the research tradition and each finding. Distinguish limitations within a study, dependence among contributions, selective availability across the corpus and applicability to the synthesis question. Their effects can differ across outcomes and interpretations.
Examine consequential exclusions and missing material. Distinguish evidence that was never sought, an eligible result not reported, a lost record and a source that cannot be accessed. Identify which conclusion might change; absence from the available corpus alone does not establish an absent effect, event or experience.
A large number of publications cannot repair common dependence. A global rating for each source cannot substitute for the relation that warrants an inference. Some weaker material may still provide context or challenge an interpretation; keep its supported role and limits explicit.
An individual claim defeated by its material or Method returns to RMP.5. Use RMP.6 when a remaining credibility choice can change the present synthesis or a worthwhile next move. Selecting an examination supplies no result from an examination not yet performed.
RMP.7:4.4 - Perform the synthesis the question permits
Apply a qualified disciplinary Method. Explain consequential grouping, transformation, weighting or translation so that another reader can recover how source contributions became the finding.
| Question and material | Positive move | What the result may claim |
|---|---|---|
| Compatible quantitative estimates | Establish the target quantity, units, contrast, timing, dependence and uncertainty. Fit the justified statistical model and examine influential assumptions. | An estimate for that target with its warranted uncertainty and scope. A common-effect and a distributional-effect analysis have different assumptions and interpretations. |
| Quantitative findings without a justified common aggregate | Group and tabulate the relevant results; perform the supported comparison or synthesis without meta-analysis. Explain the specific missing relation that prevents the requested aggregate. | The narrower comparison actually supported, including a useful refusal of an unsupported pooled magnitude. Counting statistically significant reports does not supply it. |
| Qualitative or interpretive findings | Compare, translate or develop interpretations under the selected tradition, retaining context, source concepts, disconfirming material and the synthesist’s contribution. | A descriptive synthesis or explicitly developed explanatory construct with its grounding and applicable confidence account. |
| Historical sources and accounts | Relate provenance, dating, purpose, perspective, dependence, silence and rival interpretations to the disputed chronology or explanation. | The sequence or explanation the sources warrant, with unresolved alternatives retained. |
| Mixed evidence about one question | Justify the transformation that makes contributions comparable; preserve original values, meanings and context where transformation loses detail. | An integrated answer only to the shared question the transformation supports. |
| Mixed evidence about different aspects | Synthesize each aspect on its own terms, then explain their relationship. | Convergence, complementarity or unresolved divergence without forcing unlike answers into one quantity. |
Variation does not automatically prohibit pooling; the question and model determine what variation means. Conversely, choosing a random-effects label does not make different targets compatible. A direction-only synthesis cannot estimate an effect’s magnitude.
For qualitative synthesis, a participant’s account, the source author’s interpretation and a new synthesis construct retain their distinct contributions. When GRADE-CERQual fits the selected use, judge each qualitative finding through methodological limitations, coherence, adequacy and relevance. Its confidence terms are not numerical truth probabilities or a universal historical scale.
If the needed Method or a decisive premise is unavailable, return that specific gap and the bounded result still warranted. A polished common format cannot supply the missing inference.
RMP.7:4.5 - Return the useful corpus answer
State what the corpus establishes first. Include the question, material and Method actually used, consequential dependence and transformations, uncertainty, missing contributions and transfer limits that change interpretation.
Use existing source notes, an analysis output or a concise linked explanation when adequate. Preserve access conditions and enough connection to source material for the named criticism. A public synthesis and a critic’s permitted access may support different examinations.
Finish with the adequate existing synthesis, the produced finding, a qualified corpus answer, an informative refusal, or a precise input return. An unanswered broader question can remain visible. Further inquiry earns selection through its attainable contribution and whole burden; insufficient evidence remains insufficient when no additional work is selected.
Use RMP.8 when the answer requires reconciliation with a wider claim or model, or a return to an actual receiving use with consequential reliance conditions. An already sufficient answer can be returned directly.