Making sense of conducting a critical interpretive synthesis: A scoping review

Critical interpretive synthesis was introduced in 2006 to address various shortcomings of systematic reviews such as their limitations in synthesizing heterogeneous data, integrating diverse study types, and generating theoretical insights. This review sought to outline the methodological process of conducting critical interpretive syntheses by identifying the methods currently in use, mapping the processes that have been used to date, and highlighting directions for further research. To achieve this, a scoping review of critical interpretive syntheses published between 2006 and 2023 was conducted. Initial searches identified 1628 publications and after removal of duplicates and exclusions, 212 reviews were included in the study. Most reviews focused on health-related subjects. Authors chose to utilize the method due to its iterative, inductive, and recursive nature. Both question-based and topic-based reviews were conducted. Literature searches relied on electronic databases and reference chaining. Mapping to the original six-phase model showed most variability in use of sampling and quality assessment phases, which were each done in 50.7% of reviews. Data extraction utilized a data extraction table. Synthesis involved constant comparison, critique, and consolidation of themes into constructs, and a synthesizing argument. Refining critical interpretive synthesis methodology and its best practices are important for optimizing the utility and impact and ensuring findings are relevant and actionable for informing policy, practice, and future research.