Designing and Refining a Research Question

Overview

The formulation of a research question (RQ) is critical to initiate a focused and relevant study. Researchers begin by selecting a topic of interest based on their knowledge or field experience. Next, they conduct a comprehensive literature review to understand gaps in the existing research and seek to identify an RQ of interest addressing a gap. Researchersthen specify aspects of the RQ, such as the study population, intervention or exposure, comparison group, outcome of interest, and time frame. If the research is intended to be confirmatory, the RQ is founded on an underlying hypothesis: a specific claim regarding the nature and direction of the relationship between the variables stated in the RQ. If the research is intended to be exploratory, the RQ is intended to investigate a topic without yielding conclusive results.Apre-specified primary RQ is essential to research because it guides the investigator’s specific aim, study design, data collection, and analysis plan.