sgharlow Research Synthesis
Merge a pile of sources into a single brief that shows where the sources agree, where they conflict, and what none of them answer. Synthesis is cross-source structure — not a stack of per-source summaries.
Steps
- Inventory the sources: list every file or link the user provides with a one-line description and its type (primary data, reporting, opinion, marketing). Confirm the research question the synthesis must answer — without one, ask before reading further.
- Read each source, capturing per source: its main claims, the evidence offered, its date, and any obvious bias or interest.
- Build the synthesis across sources:
- Themes — 3–6 recurring threads, each citing which sources support it.
- Consensus — claims multiple independent sources agree on (note when "agreement" is really one origin quoted many times).
- Contradictions — where sources conflict, shown side by side with each side's evidence; do not silently resolve a conflict by picking a winner.
- Gaps — what the research question needs that no source answers.
- Bottom line — 3–5 sentences answering the research question, at the confidence the evidence actually supports.
- Verify: every claim in the brief carries a source attribution; any claim traceable to
only one source is marked
single-source. If two sources' dates differ by years, flag which may be stale rather than averaging them.
Constraints
- Never pad thin evidence into a confident conclusion — "the sources don't establish this" is a valid and often the correct bottom line.
- Keep the brief under two pages; the per-source inventory goes in an appendix, not the body.
Full walkthrough, examples, and variations: recipes/Recipe-007-Research-Synthesis.md.