Articulating what questions will be answered by the synthesis project is one of the first tasks that needs to be done. Creating the research question lays the foundation for future important tasks, including setting inclusion and exclusion criteria and creating forms for data charting. Research question frameworks are community-acknowledged structures for research questions. Depending upon the research community that creates the framework, it may be focused on different types of information extraction:

Reviews of:

Effectiveness

Experiential or qualitative

Costs/Economic evaluation

Prevalence or Incidence

Diagnostic Test Accuracy

Etiology and/or Risk

Expert Opinoin/Policy

Psychometric

Prognostic

Methodology

A precisely defined research question prevents scope creep when performing an evidence synthesis. It gives clear guidance to articulate inclusion and exclusion criteria. In cases of rapid reviews or other methodologies that require articulating what specific aspects of a protocol are not conducted or specifically limited, it provides guidance on what aspects of the protocol should be tailored.

Each of these frameworks provide a way to contextualize the research question. Each initial represents a concept cluster. In terms of conceptualizing the search, each initial and the concepts that it represents will be combined using Boolean operators to create a search string. The concepts are also written in narrative form to provide a human accessible statement of research questions.

Reviews focused in different types of questions will use different frameworks for question development.

Munn et al. 2018. Typology of review question types

Systematic Reviews

PICO framework is useful for clinical quantitative research studies

PICO Framework

P = Population or Patient or Problem

I = Intervention

C = Comparison intervention

O = Outcome

Note: You may also include S for Setting, T for Type of Study, or Type of Question.

PICOT

P = Population or Patient or Problem

I = Intervention

C = Comparison intervention

O = Outcome

T = Type of Study, or Type of Question

PICOS

P = Population or Patient or Problem

I = Intervention

C = Comparison intervention

O = Outcome

S = Setting

Scoping Reviews

PEO:

P = Population and Problem

E = Exposure

O = Outcome

or 

PCC

P = Population

C = Concept - Interventions, Phenomena, or Outcomes of interest 

C = Context - Examples may include health setting (primary care, emergency care, nursing/care home)

SPICE

S = Setting

P = Perspective (for whom)

I = Intervention / Exposure

C = Comparison

E = Evaluation

SPIDER research question framework is useful for qualitative research

S = Sample

P = Phenomenon of Interest;

D = Design;

E = Evaluation

R = Research type

How do I write a research question using the Frameworks?

Define the topic in a sentence or two.

Describe the problem.

Make a concept map grouping terms describing each aspect of the problem. 

Describe what data are to be collected, how it will be collected, the methodology to be used, and how the results will be interpreted.

Clearly define the most important concepts  in the concept clusters.

Match the framework to the research goal.

Create a sentence that identifies a hypothesis or thesis that is structured around the framework initials and that reflects the concepts, methodological planning and results desired.

Draft a primary question.

Draft any secondary questions need to further describe the problem.

Exercise: Guide a researcher to a framework

Example 1: A researcher has approached you about developing a synthesis project.  The project is intended to identify all papers that have been published about their topic of interest, with a defined geographic location and time frame for when those papers collected their data in the field. The papers should include federal, state and local reports. The researcher does not want to synthesize the data. Rather, the researcher wants to identify what variables were collected in each of these project, demonstrating a gap in the literature. 

Help the researcher identify a framework.

Develop a possible concept map helping the researcher to visualize how to break down their topic into a research question.

What framework do you believe will be most helpful to the researcher and why do you think that?

Develop a research question

Using one of the suggested prompts below, identify an appropriate framework of your choice listed above, and develop a research question following the suggested steps. Record your thought process. Why does that framework fit your selected prompt?  How should the student break their research question down? How will the research question impact other decisions about the research project, particularly inclusion/exclusion criteria?

Prompt A.

Student A has been asked to develop a research question. His research interest is ecology with specific interest in field sampling of freshwater fish populations. He would like to know what research exists on the topic for three different geographic locations.

Prompt B.

Student B is working on a review of the  literature in preparation for preliminary exams.  They would like to identify all of key literature in their field on their chosen topic of retention of the use of biosensors for diagnosing autoimmune disorders. They need to gather specific information in their narrow field of interest, Ehlers-Danlos, an autoimmune disorder of the connective tissues and joints. The literature needs to focus on the diagnosis of the  etiology (or cause) of the disorders by using biosensors.

Prompt C.

Student C is working on a review of educational interventions intended to teach critical assessment of information at the 9-12 grade level. She would like to focus on practitioner innovations. She would like to identify the different categories of innovations, the resources that are needed to carry them out, and any assessment of outcomes.

Booth, A., Noyes, J., Flemming, K., Moore, G., Tunçalp, Ö., & Shakibazadeh, E. (2019). Formulating questions to explore complex interventions within qualitative evidence synthesis. BMJ global health, 4(Suppl 1), e001107. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2018-001107

Booth et al (2019) Research question frameworks - supplement file

Munn, Z., Stern, C., Aromataris, E. et al. What kind of systematic review should I conduct? A proposed typology and guidance for systematic reviewers in the medical and health sciences. BMC Med Res Methodol 18, 5 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12874-017-0468-4