A clear, well-defined, and answerable research question is essential for any systematic review, meta-analysis, or other form of evidence synthesis. The question must be answerable. Spend time refining your research question.
The PICO mnemonic is frequently used for framing quantitative clinical research questions.1
| P | Patient or problem being addressed |
| I | Intervention or exposure being studied |
| C | Comparison intervention or exposure |
| O | Clinical Outcome |
The PEO acronym is appropriate for studies of diagnostic accuracy2
| P | Patient |
| E | Exposure (the test that is being evaluated) |
| O | Outcome |
The SPICE framework is effective “for formulating questions about qualitative or improvement research.”3
| S | Setting of your project |
| P | Population being studied |
| I | Intervention (drug, therapy, improvement program) |
| C | Comparison |
| E | Evaluation (how were outcomes evaluated?) |
The SPIDER search strategy was designed for framing questions best answered by qualitative and mixed-methods research.4
| S | Sample: what groups are of interest? |
| PI | Phenomenon of Interest: what behaviors, decisions, or experience do you want to study? |
| D | Design: are you applying a theoretical framework or specific research method? |
| E | Evaluation: how were outcomes evaluated and measured? |
| R | Research type: qualitative or mixed-methods? |
1. Anastasiadis E, Rajan P, Winchester CL. Framing a research question: The first and most vital step in planning research. Journal of Clinical Urology. 2015;8(6):409-411.
2. Speckman RA, Friedly JL. Asking Structured, Answerable Clinical Questions Using the Population, Intervention/Comparator, Outcome (PICO) Framework. PM&R. 2019;11(5):548-553.
3. Knowledge Into Action Toolkit. NHS Scotland. http://www.knowledge.scot.nhs.uk/k2atoolkit/source/identify-what-you-need-to-know/spice.aspx. Accessed April 23, 2021.
4. Cooke A, Smith D, Booth A. Beyond PICO: the SPIDER tool for qualitative evidence synthesis. Qualitative health research. 2012;22(10):1435-1443.