Rapid Literature Review
A Rapid Literature Review provides a structured and time-sensitive synthesis of existing knowledge on a specific policy, institutional, economic, or social issue. It is designed for organizations that need to understand what is already known, what remains uncertain, and what questions require further analysis, without undertaking a full systematic review.
Rather than offering a simple summary of documents, this product identifies general trends, differences across studies, research gaps, dominant questions, main hypotheses, recurring findings, and key conclusions in the existing literature.
Evidence Gap Map
An Evidence Gap Map (EGM) provides a structured visual representation of the existing evidence across a specific policy or research domain. It identifies where robust evidence is available, where important knowledge gaps remain, and where future research or evaluation efforts should be prioritized.
Rather than synthesizing research findings in detail, an Evidence Gap Map systematically organizes the available evidence according to interventions, policies, outcomes, populations, sectors, or other analytical dimensions relevant to the client’s objectives.
Its primary purpose is to support strategic decision-making by revealing where evidence is concentrated, where it is scarce, and where additional investments in research or evaluation are most needed.
Systematic Literature Review
A Systematic Literature Review (SLR) provides a comprehensive, transparent, and reproducible synthesis of the existing evidence addressing a clearly defined research question. Unlike a Rapid Literature Review, an SLR follows a predefined methodological protocol designed to minimize selection bias and ensure that conclusions are based on the entirety of the relevant literature.
Its objective is not simply to summarize previous studies, but to produce a rigorous assessment of the state of knowledge while identifying patterns, inconsistencies, methodological strengths and weaknesses, evidence gaps, and implications for research and decision-making.
Meta-Analysis
A Meta-Analysis provides a quantitative synthesis of empirical findings across multiple studies addressing the same or closely related research question. It is designed to estimate the magnitude, direction, consistency, and variation of effects reported in the existing literature.
Unlike a Rapid Literature Review or a Systematic Literature Review, a Meta-Analysis does not only identify what the literature says; it statistically integrates comparable findings to determine whether an effect is robust, how large it is, and under what conditions it varies.
Research Landscape Assessment
A Research Landscape Assessment provides a strategic overview of the evolution, structure, and current state of knowledge within a specific research or policy domain. Rather than focusing solely on synthesizing existing evidence, this product examines how a field has developed over time, identifies emerging directions, maps intellectual and methodological trends, and highlights opportunities for future research, innovation, and policy development.
It is designed for organizations seeking to understand not only what is known about a topic, but also how the research ecosystem is evolving and where new investments or strategic actions may have the greatest impact.
Lessons Learned Study
A Lessons Learned Study systematically identifies, analyzes, and synthesizes the key insights generated from the implementation of policies, programs, projects, institutional reforms, or organizational initiatives. Its objective is to understand not only what happened, but also why it happened, under what conditions, and how those lessons can inform future decision-making.
Rather than documenting successes and failures descriptively, this product examines the mechanisms, contextual factors, implementation processes, and institutional conditions that explain observed outcomes.
Knowledge Synthesis
A Knowledge Synthesis integrates and critically assesses evidence from multiple sources to provide a comprehensive understanding of a policy issue, research topic, or strategic question. Unlike a literature review, which focuses primarily on published research, a Knowledge Synthesis combines academic evidence with policy documents, technical reports, evaluations, institutional knowledge, gray literature, and other relevant sources.
Its objective is to transform dispersed information into coherent, decision-relevant knowledge that supports policy development, organizational learning, strategic planning, and evidence-informed decision-making.