The Royal Society defines Evidence Synthesis as "the process of bringing together information from a range of sources and disciplines to inform debates and decisions on specific issues. Decision-making and public debate are best served if policymakers have access to the best current evidence on an issue."

The goal of evidence synthesis is to systematically scour the literature to identify all scholarly research on a specific topic and then collectively synthesize the body of evidence to inform professional practice or policy-making, or to identify gaps in the research.