Scientific knowledge is essential for driving social and technological transformation, with the synthesis of information from diverse disciplines being key. Synthesis centers serve as vital connections between science, management, and government, fostering collaboration, and tackling critical issues. Despite advancements in synthesis research, many researchers still experience a lack of dedicated structures. This study conducts a scoping review of the scientific literature on synthesis centers. Through a bibliometric analysis of 39 selected publications, we identify trends, common themes, and gaps in current knowledge. To identify the common themes and areas of focus within the selected literature on synthesis centers and related topics, a topic modeling analysis was conducted using Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA). Our findings indicate a growing global interest in synthesis centers. However, engagement remains concentrated in a few centers in the United States, resulting in low international representation, especially in the social and human sciences. The topic modeling analysis revealed five main themes: interdisciplinary socio-environmental research, scientific data management, evolutionary research, cultural/institutional influences, and practical application of knowledge. An unusual pattern of multiple co-authorship was observed in the articles. The study concludes with recommendations to strengthen synthesis centers, including expansion of interdisciplinarity, improvement of technological infrastructure, promotion of diversity, and practical application of knowledge. Suggestions for future research include investigating methods of interdisciplinary collaboration, cultural/institutional impacts, and validation of decision-making models.