Assignment: Literature synthesis Topic: The topic can be of your choosing but you are encouraged to begin to define your terminal project and use this literature synthesis to support one aspect of that project. Length: 3-5 pages (not including introduction, references or study summary tables). Topic for Literature Synthesis Due: October 13 (submitted through Black Board email) Send me a paragraph or two describing your planned terminal project and 3 or 4 subtopics that would be important for the background literature review to support that project. Then identify ONE subtopic as the focus of your literature synthesis for this course assignment. Final Paper Due: November 17, please send as an attachment through the Blackboard email This is a particular type of literature review which will be discussed in class. In a literature synthesis, the synthesis author reviews a body of work on a specific question. They first review each study one-by-one and then summarize the important information about the design and any information pertaining to your specific question on a literature table. After studying the set of tables, the author identifies a set of conclusions or statements about these collected studies and organizes the written paper by these conclusions. Note the paper does not describe and discuss each reviewed study one-by-one. Specific studies are only discussed in detail when they support a particular point made in the synthesis. For example, in a review of the effects of cocaine use in pregnancy one would find many studies that describe effects on birth weight, gestational length, and head circumference and fewer that include other measurements of the infant or pregnancy complications. In a literature synthesis, you (the author) would organize the paper by these outcomes and discuss what we know and the quality of what we know (how strong the evidence is) for each of the important outcomes. An example of a section of a research synthesis follows: Prenatal cocaine use is associated with decreased birth weight: Eight studies included birth weight as an outcome and all eight indicated an association between cocaine use in pregnancy and decreased birth weight although the magnitude of the effect varied widely across the studies. Smith (2007) reported a prospective cohort study comparing 100 women cocaine users and 200 non using controls where 100 were users of other drugs and 100 were non-drug users. This design allowed control for the drug using lifestyle which could affect infant birth weight through behaviors other than cocaine use. The other 7 studies included much smaller samples, ranging from 10-40 subjects. But in spite of these smaller sample all still found an effect on birth weight (Citations for the other 7 studies). …. Head Circumference Findings for an effect of prenatal cocaine use on newborn head circumference were mixed. Five studies showed significant effects while 3 found no association. [Then discuss some of the design differences that might account for variation in results….Describing and citing specific studies as you discuss them… Don''t necessarily discuss a lot of detail about individual studies unless it pertains to or supports a particular point you are trying to make. ] Evaluation: This paper will be worth 20% of your grade Factors considered: -Concise integrated discussion of a defined group of studies -Search boundaries, terms and databases identified -Paper organized by author''s synthesis (conclusions or statements) rather than describing each reviewed study one-by-one. -Conclusions supported in the text by evidence from primary studies -Paper includes discussion of the quality/strength of the evidence related to each major conclusion (see example above) and for the group of studies as a whole