Australian Journal of Psychology

Qualitative approaches are widely accepted and respected research methodologies in psychology, with entire journals devoted to the publication of qualitative studies. In psychology, qualitative methods include (but are not limited to) thematic analysis, discourse analysis, conversation analysis, qualitative content analysis, and Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). More recently psychology researchers, and particularly those with a critical health psychology stance (see for example, the International Society of Critical Health Psychology: https://ischp.net/), have drawn upon methods such as story completion, photovoice, ethnography and other innovative methods of enquiry that push the boundaries of traditional psychological research.

 

Just as quantitative studies can be synthesised and appraised for the quality of the collective evidence, in systematic and umbrella reviews and meta-analyses, for instance, qualitative research can similarly be synthesised and assessed for quality. Qualitative Metasynthesis is a research method which identifies relevant primary studies, appraises their quality and offers a synthesis of findings to consolidate knowledge, offer new insights and develop recommendations to improve research and/or practice. A rigorous process is used, recognising the researchers’ subjectivity and position to the topic and the data, via reflexivity. Meta-ethnography, thematic synthesis and meta-aggregation are approaches often used in metasynthesis.

 

In this collection, entitled “Metasynthesis in Psychology: Past, Present, and Future Contributions to Research and Applied Practice”, we are seeking contributions which identify, appraise, and synthesise qualitative research to address questions relevant to psychological research and applied psychology. The manuscripts can be on any topic, although they are likely to have a clinical health psychology focus as metasyntheses are particularly useful in generating evidence-informed recommendations for research and clinical practice in this area. Manuscripts which contextualise past knowledge with current evidence, to provide suggestions for future research and practice, will be preferred.  Similarly, manuscripts offering innovations in metasynthesis will be welcomed.

Keywords: Metasynthesis; qualitative research; qualitative evidence synthesis; psychology

Please review the journal scope and author submission instructions prior to submitting a manuscript.  

The deadline for submitting manuscripts is June 30th, 2024. 

Please contact Menghan Li at [email protected]  with any queries and discount codes regarding this Article Collection. 

Please be sure to select the appropriate Article Collection from the drop-down menu in the submission system. 

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