This guide was created to help you explore some of the most common frameworks for developing and refining research questions in Nursing and other health sciences fields. While it’s not a exhaustive list of every potentially relevant framework for your research interests, it’s designed to serve as an introduction to the ones most frequently used in systematic reviews and other evidence-based practice projects. These frameworks are especially helpful when developing a research question suitable for synthesizing findings from multiple studies—an essential part of advancing our work in healthcare!
Find a topic that interests you and provides an opportunity for evidence to inform and hopefully improve current practice or knowledge.
Use a strategy i.e. question formulation framework like one of the examples found in this guide to write a first draft of the question you would like to address.
You will use specific language when building your research question, but will want to spend some time then translating it into additional topics (concepts) and words (search terms) so that you begin to search for information effectively. It is recommended to utilize a concept worksheet or concept map (see examples below) to ensure you have a fairly comprehensive list of concepts and synonyms prepared when you get ready to begin your search.
When you are moving into the information seeking and searching process, one of the most helpful next steps and part of the rigor of sound research methodology is to spend some time breaking down your question into concepts. Concepts can be thought of like categories or groupings of the ideas and issues surrounding your topic that you likely considered (or discussed with others, in the case of a group research project) in trying to develop your research question.
The concepts may evolve early in the project, just as the research question can, when you perform some initial searches of the literature to get an idea if your question is viable. Concept worksheets and maps can also be useful tools to organize and visualize information because they can give you an idea of the scope and bigger picture view of your question. *See the Concept Worksheet & Map tab for examples and templates.
