Table 6.2.

Terminology suggestions for health care–related evidence syntheses

Preferred	Potentially problematic
Evidence synthesis with meta-analysis Systematic review with meta-analysis	Meta-analysis
Overview or umbrella review	Systematic review of systematic reviews Review of reviews Meta-review
Randomized	Experimental
Non-randomized	Observational
Single case experimental design	Single-subject research N-of-1 design
Case report or case series	Descriptive study
Methodological quality	Quality
Certainty of evidence	Quality of evidence Grade of evidence Level of evidence Strength of evidence
Qualitative systematic review	Qualitative synthesis
Synthesis of qualitative data^a	Qualitative synthesis
Synthesis without meta-analysis	Narrative synthesis^b, narrative summary Qualitative synthesis Descriptive synthesis, descriptive summary

^{^a}

For example, meta-aggregation, meta-ethnography, critical interpretative synthesis, realist synthesis.

^{^b}

This term may best apply to the synthesis in a mixed methods systematic review in which data from different types of evidence (eg, qualitative, quantitative, economic) are summarized⁶⁴.