Section 4: Working with Sources
Synthesizing Sources
The purpose of synthesizing
Combining separate elements into a whole is the basic dictionary definition of synthesis. It is a way to make connections between numerous and varied source materials. After synthesizing your sources, you may need to adapt your research questions to the realities of the information, or information may be selected or rejected based on relevance.
Your synthesis should demonstrate a critical analysis of your sources and an integration of the analytical results.
Example of a synthesis
Read the following synthesis.
Taking stock of the literature, several characteristics stand out that limit our understanding of the IWE [international work experience]−career success relationship. First, many studies focus on individuals soon after their return from an IWE or while they are still expatriates (Kraimer et al., 2016). These findings may therefore report results pertaining to a short-lived career phase. Given that careers develop over time, and success, especially in the form of promotions and salary increases, may take some time to materialize, it is perhaps not surprising that findings have been mixed. Some authors note that there are short-term, career-related costs of IWE and the career ‘payoff’ occurs after a time lag for which cross-sectional studies may not account (Benson & Pattie, 2008; Biemann & Braakmann, 2013). Second, the majority of studies use samples consisting only of individuals with IWE (Jokinen et al., 2008; Stahl et al., 2009; Suutari et al., 2018). Large samples that include both individuals with and without IWE are needed to provide the variance needed to identify the influence of IWE on career success (e.g., Andresen & Biemann, 2013). Third, studies tend to focus on the baseline question of whether IWE or IWE-specific characteristics (e.g., host country, developmental nature of assignment) are related to a particular career success variable (e.g., Bücker et al., 2016; Jokinen et al., 2008; Stahl et al., 2009). Yet there may be an indirect relationship between IWE and career success (Zhu et al., 2016). More complex models that examine the possible impact of mediating variables are thus needed (Mayrhofer et al., 2012). Lastly, while studies acknowledge that findings from specific countries/nationalities, industries, organisations or occupational roles may not be transferable to all individuals with IWE (Biemann & Braakmann, 2013; Schmid & Wurster, 2017; Suutari et al., 2018), the specific role of national context is rarely considered. However, careers do not develop in a vacuum. Contextual factors play an important role in moderating the career impact of various career experiences such as IWE (Shen et al., 2015).
From: Andresen, M., Lazarova, M., Apospori, E., Cotton, R., Bosak, J., Dickmann, M., Kaše, R., & Smale, A. (2022). Does international work experience pay off? The relationship between international work experience, employability and career success: A 30-country, multi-industry study. Human Resource Management Journal, 32(3), 698–721. https://doi.org/10.1111/1748-8583.12423
After reading the synthesis, ask yourself:
- How many different sources are used in the synthesis?
- How do the sources contribute to the message of the paragraph?
- What are the elements of a strong synthesis?
- What information is contributed by the authors themselves?
Developing a Synthesis
Step 1: Summarize and annotate your sources
Once you have found and evaluated your sources, begin your synthesis by summarizing each source. You may find Generative AI helpful here, but remember that a sound synthesis will include your own critical analysis, which may be difficult to develop if you rely too heavily on AI.
As you summarize your chosen sources, you can build an annotated bibliography, a list of summaries of relevant sources (see example below), or a summary table (see Figure 1).
Example: Two entries from an annotated bibliography
Nafisi, A. (2003). Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books. New York: Random House.
A brave teacher in Iran met with seven of her most committed female students to discuss forbidden Western classics over the course of a couple of years, while Islamic morality squads staged raids, universities fell under the control of fundamentalists, and artistic expression was suppressed. This powerful memoir weaves the stories of these women with those of the characters of Jane Austen, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Henry James, and Vladimir Nabokov and extols the liberating power of literature.
Obama, B. (2007). Dreams from My Father. New York: Random House.
This autobiography extends from a childhood in numerous locations with a variety of caregivers (a single parent, grandparents, boarding school) to an exploration of individual heritage and family in Africa, revealing a broken/blended family, abandonment and reconnection, and unresolved endings. Obama describes his existence on the margins of society, the racial tension within his biracial family, and his own identity conflict and turmoil.
Example: Summary table
| Research Question | |||
| Purpose | Methods | Results | |
| Source #1 journal article citation |
What was the author’s intent? | What methodology was used? | Proposed solution |
| Source #2 book chapter citation |
|||
| Source #3 conference paper citation |
|||
Figure 1. Summary table of three different sources
Examples of fields you may want to capture in your summary include:
- Authors’ names
- Article title
- Publication year
- Main purpose of the article
- Methodology or research design
- Participants
- Variables
- Measurement
- Results
- Conclusions
Other fields that will be useful when you begin to synthesize your research:
- Specific details of the article or research that are especially relevant to your study
- Key terms and definitions
- Statistics
- Strengths or weaknesses in research design
- Relationships to other studies
- Possible gaps in the research or literature (for example, many research articles conclude with the statement “more research is needed in this area”)
Finally, note how closely each article relates to your topic. You should rank these as high, medium, or low relevance. For papers you decide not to include, you may want to note your reasoning for exclusion, such as ‘small sample size’, ‘local case study,’ or ‘lacks evidence to support assertion.’
Step 3: Identify common themes
A strong synthesis must demonstrate a critical analysis of your collection of sources; you need to interpret the relationships between the sources. Writers first establish relationships between sources by continuously considering these questions:
- Where are the similarities within each topic or subtopic?
- Where are the differences?
Based on your review of the collected articles, group them by categories. You may wish to further organize them by topic and then chronologically or alphabetically by author. For each topic or subtopic you identified during your critical analysis of the paper, determine what those papers have in common.
Create a matrix (a grid or table) to compare your sources and identify common themes.
Below is a model of a basic table for organizing source material.
| Source | Theme #1 | Theme #2 | Theme #3 | Notes |
| #1 | ||||
| #2 | ||||
| #3 |
A matrix will help you consider the similarities between sources, but also remember to consider differences. Consider why different researchers might have different perspectives on a similar topic. Are the researchers in different disciplines? Do they have different theoretical perspectives on the topic? Have they used different methodologies to understand the topic?
If there are contradictory findings, you may be able to identify methodological or theoretical differences that could account for the contradiction (for example, differences in population demographics). Determine what general conclusions you can report about the topic or subtopic as the entire group of studies relate to it. For example, you may have several studies that agree on the outcome, such as ‘hands-on learning is best for science in elementary school’ or that ‘continuing education is the best method for updating nursing certification.’ In that case, you may want to organize by methodology used in the studies rather than by outcome.
Step 3: Reconsider your research question
As you learn more about your topic, you will likely have to reframe and reword your research question. This is normal. If you knew everything that there was to know about your topic, there would be no point in researching it!
Using Generative AI to Synthesize Sources
Consider academic integrity
- Please refer to your course syllabus and university policies on using Generative AI. Using Generative AI to help you better understand research articles may be acceptable. However, it will most definitely violate academic integrity policies if you submit an AI-generated synthesis as your own writing.
Use it effectively
- Generative AI can be a useful tool for synthesizing and comparing academic articles. Some Generative AI models and tools are specifically designed to generate these syntheses. Search for “Generative AI tools for academic research” to find the most popular and current tools.
- You can also use a Generative AI chatbot like ChatGPT or Perplexity. Here are some sample prompts you can use to ask these tools to synthesize research:
- Here are summaries of three journal articles. Can you identify common themes and highlight differences in their arguments or approaches?”
- Using these five abstracts from research articles, generate a conceptual map or outline showing how the studies relate to each other regarding focus, findings, and methodology.
Beware of the limitations
- You cannot rely solely on an AI-generated synthesis, as the AI model could have blind spots (areas missing from its training database) and biases. An AI-generated synthesis can be a good starting point, but you should always repeat the synthesis on your own to confirm the AI-generated output.
Consider your learning journey
- You may lose some very critical learning if you use Generative AI too frequently for synthesizing sources. Synthesizing is a difficult, but important, cognitive skill, and humans will need to develop these skills to compete with AI in the future.
Consider ethics
- Make sure that you understand the ethical implications of using Generative AI. When you upload a text to Generative AI and ask the tool to synthesize it, you may be providing that material to its training database without the author’s permission.
References
Andresen, M., Lazarova, M., Apospori, E., Cotton, R., Bosak, J., Dickmann, M., Kaše, R., & Smale, A. (2022). Does international work experience pay off? The relationship between international work experience, employability and career success: A 30-country, multi-industry study. Human Resource Management Journal, 32(3), 698–721. https://doi.org/10.1111/1748-8583.12423
Attributions
“Synthesizing Sources” by Nancy Bray, Introduction to Academic Writing, University of Alberta, is licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0.
Adapted from:
- “Summarizing and synthesizing” by Wendy L. McBride, Sourcing, summarizing, and synthesizing: Skills for effective research writing is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
- “Chapter 7: Synthesizing Sources” by Linda Frederiksen and Sue F. Phelps, Literature Reviews for Education and Nursing Graduate Students is licensed under CC BY 4.0
- “4.2 Synthesizing literature” by Scientific Inquiry in Social Work is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
