Stage 1: Getting Started: Step 1: How to Formulate a Research Question
Formulating your Research Question
The research question is truly the heart of a synthesis review. From the type of synthesis review chosen to the type of data analysis conducted, the research question is essential to guiding each stage of the review.
In this step, your goal is to establish a research question that is:
Specific and focused
Answerable/testable
A novel and meaningful contribution to the literature
Use a Tool to Create a Focused Research Question
Identifying the concepts that you are interested in will help you compose and focus your research question. These concepts can be identified using a variety of question formats (e.g., PICO[T], PIE, SPIDER, ECLIPSE).
Below is a list of the commonly used (but not exhaustive) question formats to help structure your research question. For more information, scroll to the Additional Resources at the bottom of this page.
PICO/PECOThe PICO/PECO structure is often used in the health sciences to research prognoses, diagnoses, and therapies. It is useful for comparing one intervention with another.
Example Question
(provided by Des Moines University Library)
Does hand washing among healthcare workers reduce hospital acquired infections?
This search framework can include PICOT and PICOS which are frameworks which accommodate for the concepts of Time and Study design, respectively.
Examples of other Search Frameworks:
Additional Resources
List of several types of question formats used to formulate a research question by the Virginia Commonwealth University - Clear and present questions: formulating questions for evidence based practice: Booth, A. (2006). Library hi tech, 24(3), 355-368.
- Beyond PICO: The SPIDER tool for qualitative evidence synthesis: Cooke, A., Smith, D., & Booth, A. (2012). Qualitative Health Research, 22(10), 1435-1443.
- Formulating the evidence based practice question: a review of the frameworks: Davies, K. S. (2011). Evidence Based Library and Information Practice, 6(2), 75-80.
- Wildridge, V., & Bell, L. (2002). How CLIP became ECLIPSE: a mnemonic to assist in searching for health policy/management information. Health Information & Libraries Journal, 19(2), 113-115.