Formulating a clear, well-defined, relevant and answerable research question is essential to finding the best evidence for your topic. On this page we outline the approaches to developing a research question that can be used as the basis for a review.
Frameworks have been designed to help you structure research questions and identify the main concepts you want to focus on. Your topic may not fit perfectly into one of the frameworks listed on this page, but just using part of a framework can be sufficient.
The framework you should use depends on the type of question you will be researching.
| Type of research question | Framework | Disciplines |
|---|---|---|
| Clinical questions | PICO (variants: PIO, PICOT, PICOS) | Health |
| Quantitative | PEO, PICO (variants: PIO, PICOT, PICOS) | Health; Social Sciences; Business and Policy; Environment |
| Qualitative | PEO, PICo, CLIP, ECLIPSE, SPICE, SPIDER | Social Sciences; Management; Health |
| Mixed methods | SPICE, SPIDER | Health; Social Sciences |
| Methodological or theoretical | BeHEMoTH | Health |
A framework used for formulating a clinical research question, i.e. questions covering the effectiveness of an intervention, treatment, etc.
| PICO element | Definition | Scenario |
|---|---|---|
| P (Patient / Population / Problem) | Describe your patient, population or problem |
Children |
| I (Intervention / Indicator) | What intervention is being considered? | Mind body therapies |
| C (Comparison / Control) | What is your comparison or control? | Prescription drugs |
| O (Outcome) | What outcome are you looking for? | Controlling headaches |
Extensions to PICO
If your topic has additional concepts, there are extensions to the PICO framework that you can use:
PICOS - S stands for study design. Use this framework if you are only interested in examining specific designs of study.
PICOT - T stands for timeframe. Use this framework if your outcomes need to be measured in a certain amount of time, e.g. 24 hours after surgery.
PICOC - C stands for context. Use this framework if you are focussing on a particular organisation or circumstances or scenario.
A framework used for questions relating to prognosis issues.
| PFO element | Definition | Scenario |
|---|---|---|
| P (Population) | Who is the question focussed on? | Children |
| F (Prognostic Factors) | What is being prognosed? | Febrile seizures |
| O (Seizure disorders) | What are the possible outcomes? | Seizure disorders |
A framework used for questions relating to the prevalence / incidence of a condition.
| CoCoPop element | Definition | Scenario |
|---|---|---|
| Co (Condition) | What condition / problem are you examining? | Claustrophobia |
| Co (Context) | In which context is your question set? | MRI |
| Pop (Population) | Describe your population | Adults |
Used for questions relating to cost effectiveness, economic evaluations and service improvements.
| CLIP element | Definition | Scenario |
|---|---|---|
| C (Client) | Who is the service aimed at? | Elderly |
| L (Location) | Where is the service located? | Rural communities |
| I (Improvement) | What do you want to find out? | How the services can be improved |
| P (Professional) | Who is involved in providing the service? | Health visiting |
Used for questions relating to cost effectiveness, economic evaluations, and service improvements.
| ECLIPSE element | Definition | Scenario |
|---|---|---|
| E (Expectation) | Purpose of the study - what are you trying to achieve? | To find retention rates |
| C (Client group) | Who is the information needed for? | Patients? Managers? |
| L (Location) | Where is the client group based? | NHS |
| I (Impact) | If your research is looking for service improvement, what is it? How is it measured? | Retention of staff |
| P (Professionals) | What professional staff are involved? | Nurses |
| S (Service) | For which service are you looking for information? | A&E |
Used for qualitative questions evaluating experiences and meaningfulness
| PICo element | Definition | Scenario |
|---|---|---|
| P (Patient / Population / Problem) | Describe your patient, population, or problem | Patients with pressure sores |
| I (Interest) | Describe the event, experience, activity or process | Experiences / views / opinions |
| Co (Context) | Describe the setting or characteristics | Care in the home |
For quantitative and qualitative questions evaluating experiences, and meaningfulness.
| PEO element | Definition | Scenario |
|---|---|---|
| P (Patient / Population / Problem) | Describe your patient, population or problem | Carers |
| E (Exposure) | What is the issue you are interested in? | Dementia |
| O (Outcomes or themes) | What (in relation to the issue) do you want to examine? | Quality of life |
Used for qualitative questions evaluating experiences and meaningfulness.
| SPICE element | Definition | Scenario |
|---|---|---|
| S (Setting) | Where is the study set? | United Kingdom? Care homes? |
| P (Population / Perspective) | From which population / perspective is the study done? | Carers |
| I (Intervention) | Describe the intervention being studied | Reminiscence therapy |
| C (Comparison) | Is the intervention being compared with another? | Not available |
| E (Evaluation) | How well did the intervention work? | Attitudes |
Framework used for qualitative questions evaluating experiences and meaningfulness.
| SPIDER element | Definition | Scenario |
|---|---|---|
| S (Sample) | Describe the group you are focussing on | Young parents |
| PI (Phenomenon of interest) | The behaviour or experience your research is examining | Ante-natal education classes |
| D (Design) | How was the research carried out? | Interview, questionnaire, phenomenology |
| E (Evaluation) | Which outcome are you measuring? | Experiences |
| R (Research type) | Qualitative? Quantitative? Or mixed methods? | Qualitative |
When you formulate a research question you also need to consider your inclusion and exclusion criteria. These are a list of pre-defined characteristics the literature must have, if they are to be included in a study. Different factors can be used as inclusion or exclusion criteria.
The most common inclusion / exclusion criteria are:
Limit the review of study to geographical area.
How far back do you wish to search for information? (For systematic reviews you need to give a reason if you choose to restrict your search by date).
Common excluded publications are reviews and editorials.
Adults, child studies, certain age groups?
Limit the review of study to language.
Has to be reviewed by accredited professionals in the field.
Randomised controlled trials, cohort studies?
Primary care, hospitals, general practice, schools?
Once you have a clear research question, you need to conduct a scoping search to identify:
Search the following resources to find systematic reviews, either completed or in progress. Check the Supporting videos and online tutorials page on this guide for demonstration of how to do a scoping search.
To find primary research related to your topic you can search databases available via: