Literature Reviews in the Health Science

A research question is a question around which you center your research:

1. Consider a broad topic of research interest and then write it down.
2. Consider specific areas you wish to examine within this topic. 
3. Consider key themes and elements of these specific topics to investigate in-depth.
4. Consider how to work these key areas and elements into your research question.

1. Develop your research question, it should be:

• clear: provide enough specifics that one’s audience can easily understand its purpose without needing additional explanation.
• focused: narrow enough that it can be answered thoroughly in the space the writing task allows.
• concise: expressed in the fewest possible words.
• complex: not answerable with a simple “yes” or “no,” but rather requires synthesis and analysis of ideas and sources.
• arguable: potential answers are open to debate rather than accepted facts.

(content courtesy George Mason Writing Center - How to Write a Research Question and Giffith University Library)

The PICO format for constructing research questions is commonly used in evidence-based clinical practice. This format creates a "well-built" question that identifies four concepts: (1) the Patient problem or Population, (2) the Intervention, (3) the Comparison (if there is one), and (4) the Outcome(s).

EXAMPLE:
In adult patients with total hip replacements (Population), how effective is pain medication (Intervention) compared to aerobic stretching (Comparison) in controlling post-operative pain (Outcome) during the perioperative and recovery time (Time)?

View a list of PICO Question template examples (Northern AZ University library)

Elements to include in your research question proposal:

• What new knowledge will be generated for the discipline?
• Why is it valuable?
• How can the reader be assured the conclusions will be valid?
• How will you present your findings?

Download the Literature Review cheat sheet  (Gerstein Science Information Center)