evidence synthesis

Journal of Graduate Medical Education

Narrative reviews are a type of knowledge synthesis grounded in a distinct research tradition. They are often framed as non-systematic, which implies that there is a hierarchy of evidence placing narrative reviews below other review forms.1 However, narrative reviews are highly useful to medical educators and researchers. While a systematic review often focuses on a narrow question in a specific context, with a prespecified method to synthesize findings from similar studies, a narrative review can include a wide variety of studies and provide an overall summary, with interpretation and critique.1 Examples of narrative review types include state-of-the-art, critical, and integrative reviews, among many others.Narrative reviews are situated within diverse disciplines in the social sciences and humanities. Most forms of narrative reviews align with subjectivist and interpretivist paradigms. These worldviews emphasize that reality is subjective and dynamic. They contrast with the positivist and post-positivist worldviews that are the foundations of systematic reviews: a single reality can be known through experimental research. Unlike systematic reviews, narrative reviews offer researchers the ability to synthesize multiple points of view and harness unique review team perspectives, which will shape the analysis. Therefore, insights gained from a narrative review will vary depending on the individual, organizational, or historical contexts in which the review was conducted.1-5Narrative reviews allow researchers to describe what is known on a topic while conducting a subjective examination and critique of an entire body of literature. Authors can describe the topic's current status while providing insights on advancing the field, new theories, or current evidence viewed from different or unusual perspectives.3 Therefore, such reviews can be useful by exploring topics that are under-researched as well as for new insights or ways of thinking regarding well-developed, robustly researched fields.Narrative reviews are ofte...

Narrative Reviews: Flexible, Rigorous, and Practical