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.