Empirical research consolidation: a generic overview and a classification scheme for methods

I define research consolidation as comparing and combining (amalgamating or, at least, juxtaposing) results or other output from multiple previously conducted research activities, relevant to a goal or topic of interest. The concept, not limited to empirical research or any specific method, is similar to and subsumes what is often referred to as research synthesis or research integration; I explain the concept and my rationale for the new term. After introducing the broader concept, I focus on consolidation of empirical research. As background for this, I offer a brief introduction to empirical research. Then I provide a generic overview of empirical research consolidation, abstracted from several of its specific methods, such as quantitative meta-analysis and qualitative meta-synthesis; this sort of overview—method agnostic and capturing the commonality—is not readily available in the literature. At the core of the paper, I propose a scheme to classify methods for empirical research consolidation followed by a review and classification of selected methods, illustrating the scheme. I also discuss and clarify related terminology. The classification scheme differentiates between two major attributes of methods—consolidation technique and type of content to be consolidated—that may reflect the positivist or constructivist research paradigm. Consolidation techniques could be aggregative, interpretive, or a combination thereof. Content consolidated, from empirical research reports, could be empirical or not and could be from quantitative research, qualitative research, other kinds of empirical research, or a combination thereof. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2013