Towards a method for synthesizing diverse evidence using hypotheses as common language

Abstract

Combining the findings obtained by different research methods in mixed-research synthesis could potentially contribute to a broader, more diverse evidence base for interventions. In this article we focus on the methodological challenges involved in synthesizing various types of research findings. We propose a method that uses hypotheses to facilitate the comparison and integration of such different findings. The method consists of four steps: (1) synthesizing findings per source of evidence, (2) formulating a mono-method hypothesis for each source, (3) integrating the monomethod hypotheses into one overall hypothesis, and (4) evaluating, using empirical data, whether the overall hypothesis b..