Back to the basics: Guidance for formulating good research questions

Abstract

Good science is driven by rigorous questions. Much like the foundation of a house, a research question must be carefully constructed to prevent downstream problems in project execution. And yet, pharmacy researchers and scholars across all career stages may find themselves struggling when developing research questions. The purpose of this commentary is to provide useful guidance on composing and evaluating rigorous research questions. A variety of frameworks, such as PICO (Patient/population; Intervention; Comparison; Outcome), are available to researchers and can assist them in ensuring that their research question has covered all relevant components. Additionally, the FINER (Feasible; Interesting; Novel; Ethical; and Relevant) criteria can help researchers with evaluating their research questions for practical considerations. Finally, building awareness of common pitfalls when composing research questions can aid researchers to avoid issues that they may not otherwise discover until their manuscript undergoes peer review.