Table 1 Summary of “best fit” framework synthesis approach

Step 1

Define review question

Step 5

Create new themes by performing secondary thematic analysis on any evidence that cannot be coded into the a priori framework

Step 2

a) Systematically identify relevant primary research studies

b) Identify relevant (“best fit”) publications of frameworks and conceptual models/theories

Step 6

Produce a new framework composed of a priori and new themes supported by the evidence

Step 3

Extract data on study characteristics from included studies and conduct study quality appraisal

Step 7

Revisit evidence to explore relationships between themes or concepts, in order to create a model

Step 4

Code evidence from included studies into the a priori framework identified in step 2