How to Formulate a Research Question
Written by Amil Agarwal
The process of formulating a good research question and pitching it to your PI can be frustrating and challenging. Fortunately, there are effective mnemonics out there built by researchers to help you develop a research question, like FINER (feasible, interesting, novel, ethical, and relevant) and PICOT (Population, Intervention, Comparator, Outcome, and Timeframe). These are great and helpful tools that should be utilized. The focus of this article is not to reiterate these mnemonics on how to formulate a research question but rather how to pitch it to your PI.
Literature Review:
You may have a great idea for a study to pitch, but someone may have beat you to it. A thorough literature review is incredibly important before pitching anything. Besides telling you what has been done, it will give you an understanding of the current literature to assist your writing process if this goes from proposal to manuscript. Check out our blog post titled “How to Perform a Literature Review” for more information.
Narrow your research question:
It is important to take what you learned from your review and make a concise research question. This is where the mnemonics come in handy. Once a narrow research question has been constructed, be prepared to answer three questions:
What is the purpose of this study?
What is your hypothesis?
What does this add to current literature?
Troubleshoot:
Just as they are a great resource on the Wards, residents are great for research proposals. With them, you can informally discuss the logistics of your research pitch. Additionally, they can help predict questions the attending will ask you.
Execution plan:
At this point, you should be ready to pitch your idea. However, before presenting, it is best to have a plan for the next steps. In most cases, it will be your job to coordinate the project from start to finish. Anticipate the workload for this, so you do not get overwhelmed in the process.
In summary, a good pitch requires preparation. You want to be able to predict what your PI will ask. Following this simple approach will help you be the most prepared and most productive.
