Threats to Validity
Maintaining scientific integrity while conducting an integrative research review involves paying great attention to threats to validity. Several of these threats must be considered during this phase of the integrative review. Cooper1 notes that the reviewer must not define the operational definitions too narrowly because the quality of the findings can be impaired when other definitions are not considered. On the other hand, Cooper warns against defining the operational definitions too broadly because this can lead to overlooking important study details and incorrectly interpreting results. To overcome these 2 threats to validity, Cooper suggests that the reviewer use the broadest conceptual definition possible and pay impeccable attention to the differences in study methodologies. The reviewer must balance the conceptual definition and methods review constantly during this dynamic process.