Mukumbang Ferdinand C, Gilmore Brynne, Hunter Rebecca, Dada Sara, Dalkin Sonia, Booth Andrew
Department of Global Health, School of Public Health, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, United States of America.
UCD Centre for Interdisciplinary Research, Education and Innovation in Health Systems (UCD IRIS Centre), Dublin, Ireland.
PLoS One. 2025 Sep 10;20(9):e0332250. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0332250. eCollection 2025.
A realist synthesis or review is a theory-driven, realist-informed interpretive approach to synthesizing secondary data, informing evidence-based practice, and explaining social phenomena. Realist syntheses use flexible and iterative methods to achieve this goal, including drawing on stakeholders' knowledge. Thus, realist syntheses require robust planning to be conducted and reported. Similarly, owing to their complex and iterative nature, they also need assessment guidelines so that knowledge practitioners and policymakers can appraise the value of the evidence they produce. While some current tools guide the conduct and reporting of realist syntheses, little comprehensive guidance exists on effectively assessing the quality of realist syntheses. To this end, we aim to develop a Quality Assessment Tool for Realist Synthesis (QUATRES) to encourage the transparent reporting of the review methods, the explicit assessment of the quality of reviews and the reliability of their findings. To achieve this, we will employ a multi-method study design consisting of three work packages: an audit of peer-reviewed articles to identify strengths and weaknesses in a sample of papers reporting realist syntheses, a methodological review of realist synthesis methodology guidance to identify quality markers, and a Delphi consensus to refine and validate quality markers.
实证主义综合分析或综述是一种以理论为驱动、基于实证主义的解释性方法，用于综合二手数据、为循证实践提供信息并解释社会现象。实证主义综合分析采用灵活且迭代的方法来实现这一目标，包括借鉴利益相关者的知识。因此，实证主义综合分析需要进行并报告强有力的规划。同样，由于其实质复杂且具有迭代性，它们还需要评估指南，以便知识从业者和政策制定者能够评估其所产生证据的价值。虽然目前有一些工具指导实证主义综合分析的实施和报告，但对于有效评估实证主义综合分析的质量，几乎没有全面的指导。为此，我们旨在开发一种实证主义综合分析质量评估工具（QUATRES），以鼓励对综述方法进行透明报告、对综述质量进行明确评估以及评估其结果的可靠性。为实现这一目标，我们将采用多方法研究设计，包括三个工作包：对同行评审文章进行审核，以确定报告实证主义综合分析的样本论文中的优点和不足；对实证主义综合分析方法指南进行方法学综述，以确定质量指标；以及通过德尔菲共识法来完善和验证质量指标。
