Greetings! I could benefit from your collective wisdom (smile).
My concern: I don't want to misrepresent my study as a realist synthesis if it's not. I am coding empirical studies first for CMOs and MOs and then analyzing the constituent Cs, Ms, and Os. I will synthesize this data. So, in my mind, I am conducting a retrospective realist review.
Still, I wonder if I should change the title page of my master's dissertation from
"[Main title]: A realist synthesis"
to (something like)
"[Main title]: An RSM-inspired synthesis"
The GIST of my ABSTRACT IS ATTACHED. My concerns stem from the facts that:
(1) I will NOT be consulting with stakeholders, but only reviewing and synthesizing the literature. This is a delimitation.
(2) I delimit the review and synthesis in other ways: For example, my analysis will be focused on mechanisms. I will initially code "intact" CMOs and MOs and then code ONLY the individual Cs, Ms, and Os of those found, intact CMOs and MOs.
While I hope to be able to make observations and/or assertions about the identified, intact CMOs and Mos, my main focus will be a subsequent discussion--details about the mechanisms identified. I'll ask (and address): What do we learn about this intervention's mechanisms? Are there patterns of C's and O's regarding the M's? Can we abstract generalizations (categories, concepts, themes) from simply the M's identified? What types of M's trigger this particular type or category of O, and that one, and this one . . . ? Etc.
(3) PLUS (finally): Official documentation of the official program theory, as published, clearly does not include enough chain-stages in the program LOGIC. I know this from my experience with the intervention and my extensive reading in theory surrounding the intervention. Thus, my plan is to supplement the official theory and THEN "test it" with empirical studies. Is that okay? I had planned to just test the official program theory, but that doesn't look very useful at this point.
With all of these delimitations/modifications/steps, is my study still a realist review? Fingers crossed! ;-) I won't run my middle-range CMOCs by stakeholders before submitting my master's dissertation. :-/
Thank you SO VERY MUCH in advance for any assistance.
Please excuse any and all typos.
Mickey
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