"Evidence synthesis refers to any method of identifying, selecting, and combining results from multiple studies. " A literature (narrative) review is one of the most common types of evidence synthesis.

This peer-reviewed article describes, in depth, different types of reviews. It's best to start with your research question and choose the review type that matches it.

This guide will help you do a literature review as either a stand-alone project or as part of a dissertation, thesis, or other research project.

"While screening titles and abstracts is widely considered time-consuming, metadata extraction and critical appraisal took as long or longer to complete"

"tabs describe each evidence synthesis step in more detail, as well as provide resources and guidance." This is a great guide to all the steps of evidence synthesis.

For one-person teams (aka most dissertations, theses, and class projects) or teams with short time availability, a structured review is a great way to synthesize evidence.

"This document is based on the PRISMA Statement (evidence-based minimum set of items for reporting
in systematic reviews and meta-analyses) extensions for systematic review protocols and scoping reviews, and materials developed by The Campbell Collaboration" If you decide to do a systematic review instead of structured or narrative, this document is a good place to start.

"This toolkit contains resources, templates and other useful materials for researchers undertaking evidence synthesis projects such as systematic or scoping reviews." The templates are for task lists, Covidence screening software, and mining seed papers for search terms.

A downloadable .doc file that helps you assemble search terms, track your searches, and record your searches between databases.