Free synthesis matrix templates

The standard literature review matrix layout used by university writing centers — as a blank template you can fill in by hand. Or skip the blank page: the generator pre-fills it from real papers in about a minute.

Excel / Google Sheets

CSV with the standard 7 columns and 8 blank source rows. Opens in Excel, Numbers, and Google Sheets.

Download .csv

Markdown

For Notion, Obsidian, or any Markdown editor. Same structure, plain text.

Download .md

Word / Google Docs — copy this table

Select the table below, copy, and paste straight into Word or Google Docs. It keeps its structure.

Citation	Research question	Method	Sample	Key findings	Limitations	Notes / gap ideas

How to fill it in

1. One paper per row; write the citation as “First author et al. (year)”.
2. Keep cells short — phrases, not paragraphs. The matrix is for comparing, not summarizing.
3. After 8–10 rows, read down each column: agreements become themes, disagreements become discussion points, and empty spaces become your research gap.

Want the first pass done for you? Generate a filled matrix from real papers →