Why Research Questions Matter

A well-formulated research question is the foundation of any successful literature review or research project. It guides your search strategy, helps you identify relevant studies, and ensures your work contributes meaningful knowledge to your field.

What Makes a Good Research Question?

According to the Writing Center at George Mason University, a research question should be:

• Clear - unambiguous and easy to understand
• Focused - specific enough to be manageable
• Concise - expressed efficiently without unnecessary complexity
• Complex - requiring analysis and synthesis, not just a simple yes/no answer
• Arguable - open to different interpretations or approaches

Your research question should be relevant to the patient or problem you're investigating and formulated to facilitate your literature search, regardless of the type of review you're undertaking.

How to Develop Your Research Question

Step 1: Explore the Literature

Do some initial searches (use Primo Search and Google Scholar) to understand:

• What has already been researched
• What questions have been raised
• What gaps exist in current knowledge
• How you might focus your research

Step 2: Start Asking Questions

Begin with broad questions about your topic, then gradually narrow your focus.

Step 3: Use a Framework

Apply an appropriate framework to structure and refine your question. Common frameworks include:

• PICO (Population, Intervention, Comparison, Outcome) - ideal for clinical intervention questions
• SPIDER (Sample, Phenomenon of Interest, Design, Evaluation, Research type) - useful for qualitative research
• Other frameworks - choose the one that best suits your research type and question - see the other frameworks section

Evaluating Your Research Question

Once you've drafted your question, assess it using these criteria:

• Contribution: What new knowledge will your research generate?
• Clarity: Is your question unambiguous and will it direct your systematic search effectively?
• Scope: Is your question focused but not overly complex? Aim for a balance between questions that are too broad (with overwhelming amounts of research) and those too narrow (with insufficient relevant studies)
• Feasibility: Can this question be answered within your available resources and timeframe?

The PICO framework is commonly used to formulate the clinical question. Each of the 4 letters identifies a key component of the question:

PICO is commonly used when one intervention is being compared with another, or with no intervention at all.

Sometimes this is expanded to PICOTT, which adds on extra letters for:

T        Type of Question - Such as a diagnosis, prognosis, therapy, aetiology/harm, or prevention question

T        Type of Study - Includes the study design that would best answer the question: randomised controlled trial; cohort study; case controlled study; case series; case report etc. See also Levels of Evidence.

Or PICOT where:

T        Time - This specifies the timeframe over which the outcome is being measured or observed. 

There's a good outline of this, including some self-testing, on the National Library of Medicine's PubMed information site: Using PICO to frame clinical questions.

You won't need to use every element of the PICO as concepts to search. Often there is no C (Comparison) and the Outcome will come out of the results of your search.

There are many other frameworks that can be used for different types of questions e.g. PCC and SPIDER. You should use the framework that best suits your type of question. Discussion and examples are in the other frameworks section.

A young, non-pregnant woman with iron deficiency anaemia has developed GI side effects on ferrous sulfate. A friend has mentioned to her that Maltofer iron preparation has fewer side effects. She would like your advice on whether this might be a suitable option for treatment of her iron deficiency anaemia.

PICO question: Is iron hydroxide polymaltose as effective at treating iron deficiency anaemia in non-pregnant women as ferrous sulfate and does it have a lower incidence of GI side effects.

How to write a research question - The Writing Center, George Mason University

Writing a good research question - Center for Innovation in Research and Teaching (CIRT)

Developing a researchable question - from SAGE Research Methods Online

Asking clinical questions - an excellent module you can work through from the Clinical Information Access Portal (CIAP), NSW Health.

Evidence-Based Medicine in Practice - Professor Paul Glasziou from the University of Oxford's Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine (CEBM) talks about forming a PICO question.

Evidence-Based Practice: Step 1: Ask the Question (PICO) - Includes information on the different types of questions. (From the Medical University of North Carolina Libraries)

Evidence-Based Practice: What Type of Question - Information on PICO and SPIDER but also on other ways of structuring a research or clinical question. (From the University of Notre Dame Library, Australia)

Cooke, A., Smith, D., & Booth, A. (2012). Beyond PICO: The SPIDER tool for qualitative evidence synthesis. Qualitative Health Research, 22(10), 1435-1443. doi:10.1177/1049732312452938 - This article looks at using PICO and SPIDER as tools to help in literature searching.

PICO for Evidence-Based Medicine (University of Sydney) (2:08)
Talks about PICO as a "mnemonic" for breaking a research question down into distinct concepts that can be used in searching.