A good research question will provide a strong foundation for any literature review and research project. It expresses the focus and purpose of the research, whilst also ensuring it is structured to avoid missing relevant studies, or collecting a biased results set.
It should be -
Preliminary Searches
Before you finalise your research question you should conduct preliminary searches for literature, this is where you:
The PICOT research question format is a helpful approach for summarizing research questions that explore the effect of therapy in health-related research
PICOTT includes the elements of the PICOT research framework, but adds the types of studies that will be looked at to answer the research question, e.g. randomised controlled trials, cohort studies etc.
SPICE can be used for quantitative studies. SPICE stands for
Sample topic: What are the coping skills of parents of children with autism undergoing behavioural therapy in schools?
S - Schools
P - Parents of children with autism
I - Behavioural therapy
C - None
E - Coping skills
PICo
PICo is a modified version of PICO(T) used for qualitative research questions
Example PICo question:
What are caregivers' experiences with providing home-based care to patients with HIV/AIDS in Africa?
P - Caregivers providing home-based care to persons with HIV/AIDS
I - Experiences
Co - Africa
The SPIDER framework is an alternative search strategy tool (based on PICo) for qualitative/mixed methods research.
Sample topic: What are the experiences of women undergoing IVF treatment?
S - Women
PI - IVF treatment
D - Questionnaire or survey or interview
E - Experiences or views or attitudes or feelings
R - Qualitative or mixed method
This framework is useful for questions relating to health policy and management issues. Expectation encourages reflection on what the information is needed for, i.e. improvement, innovation or information. Impact looks at what you would like to achieve e.g. improve team communication (3)
(1) Scribbr, https://www.scribbr.com/research-process/research-questions/
(2) Melknyl B, & Fineout-Overholt E, (2010) Evidence-based practise in nursing and healthcare New York, LippincottWilliams and wilkins
Curtin University Libguide - Systematic Reviews in the Health Sciences
(3) Wildridge, V. and Bell, L. (2002), How CLIP became ECLIPSE: a mnemonic to assist in searching for health policy/management information. Health Information & Libraries Journal, 19: 113-115. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1471-1842.2002.00378.x
(4) Brown P, Brunnhuber K, Chalkidou K, Chalmers I, Clarke M, Fenton M et al. How to formulate research recommendations BMJ 2006; 333 :804 doi:10.1136/bmj.38987.492014.94
(5) USA subject Guide: Systematic Reviews https://guides.library.unisa.edu.au/SystematicReviews