How to write a research question

A question fails when it is only a theme, such as effects of exercise. Name the people, the action, and the outcome. If you cannot name the outcome, you cannot screen.

1. Name the people. Age, setting, or condition. One sentence.
2. Name the action. A treatment, a tool, or an exposure. Not a theme.
3. Name the outcome. What you will extract. If it is not measurable, drop it.
4. Write the exclude rules. Study types you will not read. Languages you will not read. Years, if you have a reason.

ScholarIQ takes that question as the search. It does not write the protocol. You still choose the criteria.

Open this step in ScholarIQ

Count the records first. A topic is not a question. Write who, what you compare, and what you will count. The time follows the count, not the size of a team.

The rule, the date, and the count. A question fails when it is only a theme, such as effects of exercise. Name the people, the action, and the outcome. If you cannot name the outcome, you cannot screen.

Not to start. ScholarIQ does not score a second reviewer. If the protocol asks for dual review, a second person sees the same record.

A file with no reason. A question fails when it is only a theme, such as effects of exercise. Name the people, the action, and the outcome. If you cannot name the outcome, you cannot screen.

The count matches the records. If a flow-diagram box would not match, the step is not done.

The rule, the date, and the count. A reader must be able to open the same record.

No, if you will call the work a systematic review. If you skip it, write what you did. Do not hide the gap.

Stop. Write how far you got. Records you did not screen are not exclusions.

The rule, a sample of decisions, and the passage.

A guideline panel, a CRO, and a GRADE meeting. ScholarIQ takes that question as the search. It does not write the protocol. You still choose the criteria.