Knowledge Synthesis

#capture https://oasislab.pubpub.org/pub/54t0y9mk/release/3 Has further reading included in article

Synthesis

the construction of a new point of view from a set of observations, that directly advances knowledge and/or opens up a path to advancing knowledge.

It can yield: - Theory - Research questions - Problem frames - Design arguments

Case Study

Here is a “lit review” of observations with no synthesis:

Species vary: some variations are bad, and some help with survival. Species struggle to survive. Some, but not all, organisms pass on new offspring.

And here is the same set of observations, synthesized:

Species struggle to survive. Species also vary, and some variations are good and some are bad for survival. Therefore, one precondition for species to survive and pass on offspring is by having or inheriting beneficial variations. This variation and selection process explains how we get the diversity of species we see today.

You may recognize the topic here: it’s Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection!

Points of failure in synthesizing

  1. Too much detail
    • Too low level, missing forest for the trees
    • Only empirical evidence, but no extrapolating meaning
  2. Too little detail
    • Too high level, missing the ddiamond in the details
    • Overgeneralization of claims, glossing over inconsistencies
  3. Insuffiecient context
    • Lacking connections to other claims. Diminishes their significance if they are not prevalent.
  4. Information silos
    • Due to inordinate detail-orientedness
    • Important connections across disciplines or topics are ignored. Kind of like comp sci and psychology sharing the same roots. Interdisciplinary.
  5. Information overload
    • When there are too many papers to process them thoroughly

Busywork overhead - the "technical debt" involved with extracting "trapped data", which can take away from effective synthesis. (https://oasislab.pubpub.org/pub/54t0y9mk/release/3?from=6656&to=6657) Related to info interaction and retrieval

Combine

compression/divergence/abstraction/theory

with

context/convergence/particulars/data

Data Model

1. Question notes - an open research question
2. Synthesis notes - express a single, generalized idea such as a claim
3. Observation notes - express a single, highly contextualized and specific observation which can form basis of synthesis note
4. Context snippet note - help ground and contextualize observation notes