1. Introduction

Developing a research question can be a challenging task, especially when you are new to the field of research. You may have too many ideas, or none at all. You may feel overwhelmed by the scope, complexity, or novelty of the research methods. You may wonder if your question is interesting, relevant, original, or feasible.

Selecting an appropriate research question is however critical to the success of your project, even though it may seldom be explicitly stated in the final paper. First of all, choosing the right research question can help you avoid frustration and disappointment. If you pick a topic or a problem that is too broad, too narrow, too complex or too simple, you may encounter difficulties in finding relevant sources, defining your research objectives, designing your methodology or presenting your findings. Secondly, developing the right research question can help you achieve your academic or professional goals more effectively. It guides you on choosing the appropriate research design and methods. You should develop a question that aligns with your objectives and expectations, thus maintaining your focus. You should also consider the feasibility, relevance and contribution of your question to your field of study or practice. Finally, developing a good research question can help you enjoy the research process and learn new things. If you are passionate about your question, you will develop more curiosity, creativity and persistence in exploring it. You will find research more rewarding and satisfying if you choose a question that sparks your interest and challenges your skills.

In this blog post, we will provide you with some tips on how to develop a research question that is interesting, relevant, feasible, and most importantly, that works for you. We will also provide you with some examples of effective research questions. We will cover the following aspects in detail:

• How to brainstorm and identify research needs
• How to conduct a literature review and identify gaps
• How to formulate a research question
• How to evaluate and refine your ideas

By the end of this blog post, you should have a better understanding of how to develop a research question that will help you achieve your research goals.

2. Steps to develop a good research question

21. Identify your field of interest and pick a topic that interests you.

i. Start with Curiosity

• Start with what you’re curious about. What topics or questions interest you? What are the gaps in this field of study or unresolved issues? What field or fact do you want to explore? For example, you may be curious about the impact of nutrition on maternal and child health in Cameroon. You may want to solve the problem of malnutrition and its consequences among pregnant women and children under five.

ii. Exploration Techniques

Mind Mapping Technique:

• Write your general topic in the center of a page
• Branch out with related concepts, questions, and sub-topics
• Look for connections between branches that might suggest unique angles

The Five Ws Approach:

• Who is affected by this topic/problem?
• What exactly is the issue or phenomenon?
• When does this occur (historically, seasonally, etc.)?
• Where is this most relevant geographically or contextually?
• Why does this matter to the field and broader society?

iii. Journal Browsing:

• Explore different sources of information. Read books, articles, blogs, podcasts, videos, etc. that spark your interest. See what other researchers are doing or have done and what gaps or opportunities they identify, such as the lack of data, the need for more evaluation, the potential for innovation, or the importance of context-specific solutions. You will usually identify these aspects under the discussion, limits/limitations sections in most research papers. Exploring these sources, a particular theme or field might feel inspiring to you or may capture your curiosity

iv. Focus and Feasibility

• Narrow down your focus. Once you have a general idea of your field of interest, try to define it more specifically. What aspect or angle do you want to explore? What can be the main question or goal of your research? What are the sub-questions or objectives that support it?
• Consider the feasibility and relevance of your research. How realistic is your research question? Do you have the time, resources, and skills to conduct it? How will your research contribute to the existing knowledge or practice in your field? How will it benefit you or others?

2.2 Review the existing literature to understand the background and find the gaps!

This step is crucial to the success of any research project. You should always review the existing literature and find the gaps in the knowledge that your study can address. A literature review is not just a summary of what has already been done, but a critical analysis of how your research question fits into the current state of knowledge. It contextualizes your research question. Here are some ways on how you can conduct a literature review and identify the gaps in the knowledge:

• Start Broad, Then Narrow: Make a broad search of your topic and narrow it down as you go. Use keywords, and apply them in databases, journals, books, and other sources that are relevant to your field and topic. For example, search databases such as Google Scholar, PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, AJOL, etc.
• Example Search Process: Suppose your research idea is about investigating the impact of climate change on infectious diseases in Africa. You may start by using keywords such as “climate change”, “infectious diseases”, and “Africa” to search for relevant sources on Google Scholar or PubMed. You may then narrow down your search by adding more specific keywords, such as “malaria”, “dengue”, “cholera”, or “vector-borne diseases”. You may also filter your search by publication date, language, or type of source.

Digital Tools to Enhance Your Literature Review

Quality Assessment

• Evaluate the quality and credibility of the sources you find. Check the author’s credentials, the publication date, the publication journal, the methodology and the results. Avoid sources that are outdated, biased, or unsupported by evidence. For example, you may check the author’s affiliation, qualifications, and publications to see if they are experts in the field of your topic. You may also check the publication date to see if the source is current and up-to-date. Also ensure to check the publication journal to see if it is peer-reviewed, reputable, and has a high impact factor. You may also check the methodology and the results to see if they are valid, reliable, and relevant to your research question.

Organization and Analysis

• Organize your literature review into themes or categories that reflect the main aspects of your research question. For each theme or category, summarize the main findings, compare and contrast different perspectives, and highlight the strengths and weaknesses of the existing literature. This can easily be done with the use of referencing managers such as Zotero or Mendeley.
• Identify areas where further exploration is needed or that previous research studies have not addressed. These can be theoretical, methodological, empirical, or practical gaps or challenges that have not been adequately explored or resolved. Reflect on which research can fill these gaps or challenge these assumptions and contribute to the advancement of knowledge in that field.

2.3. Brainstorm some possible research questions that address the gaps!

Here are some tips to help you out brainstorming on possible research questions after your thorough literature review and exploration:

i. Initial Question Development

• Start by stating a broad research question that you think can help filling the gap you noticed while doing the literature search. For example, you may have noticed that there is a lack of studies on the mental health impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic in Africa, especially among vulnerable groups such as refugees, internally displaced persons (IDPs) or HIV patients. Therefore, you may state a broad research question like this: Does the COVID-19 pandemic affects the mental health of vulnerable populations in Africa?
• Do some preliminary research on your research question to see what has been done before and what are the current issues or debates. You can use online search strategies with keywords. For example, you may use keywords such as “COVID-19”, “mental health”, “refugees”, “IDPs”, “PLHIV” and “Africa” to search for relevant articles, reports, and websites. You may find some sources that provide background information, statistics, and evidence on the topic.

ii. Advanced Brainstorming Techniques

The Contrarian Approach:

• Take existing research conclusions and ask “What if the opposite is true?”
• Examine underlying assumptions in the field and question them
• Look for contexts where established principles might not apply

Interdisciplinary Integration:

• Identify concepts from other disciplines that could inform your field
• Consider methodologies from different fields that could offer new insights
• Look for parallel problems in other domains that might have transferable solutions

Problem-Solution Mapping:

• List all the problems or challenges identified in your literature review
• For each problem, brainstorm potential solutions or approaches
• Consider which problems align with your interests and expertise
• Develop questions that examine the efficacy of your proposed solutions

iii. Formulate specific and focused questions that address the gaps that you identified.

• These questions should be clear, concise, and answerable with data. They should also be relevant and meaningful to your field of interest and your audience. You may formulate some specific and focused questions like: What are the most common and severe mental health disorders among IDPs in Douala Cameroon, and how do they vary by age, gender, and location? Or What are the barriers and facilitators to accessing and utilizing mental health services and resources for refugees, IDPs and PLHIV in Africa, and how can they be addressed or enhanced?

These questions are not yet refined but they help you enumerate and focus on the aspects you would like to explore.

2.4 Select the Most Suitable Research Question and Make it SMART

You may now want to refine your research question to a specific issue, population, or context by revising, expanding, or narrowing it based on your research findings. You can use different strategies to refine your research question, such as adding or removing variables, specifying the population or context, comparing, or contrasting different aspects, or using different types of questions (such as descriptive, explanatory, evaluative or predictive). When applicable, your research question should answer all or some of the following key questions: “What”, “how”, “why”, “who/where/when”.

The PICOTS framework is widely recommended in medical and epidemiological research for defining research questions. PICO stands for Population P, Intervention I, Comparison C, Outcome O, Time T and Setting S.

Population: It also includes the patient or the problem of interest. In order to define this aspect of PICOTS, you can ask yourself the following questions:

• Who is the population of interest of my study?
• Who do I define as a patient?
• What are the characteristics of the population (age, gender, health condition…)?
• What are the eligibility criteria for participants (age, gender, health condition…)?

Intervention or the exposure:

• What is the intervention, exposure or factor being studied? Interventions such as drug therapy, behavioral therapy, diagnostic tests, etc or if there is no intervention, what is the exposure (smoking, alcohol intake…)?

Comparison

• What is the alternative or control group that is compared with the intervention? For example, in clinical trials we usually compare treatment groups with Placebo groups or Gold and standard treatments. Similarly, we can compare groups of people exposed to a particular factor with unexposed groups.

Outcome

• What result/outcome are you measuring? How will you measure it? It can be a clinical or epidemiological outcomes such as prevalence, incidence, mortality, quality of life, etc.

Time

• When will the study take place? What period? Will there be a follow up period?

Setting

• Where will the study take place? A whole country, a specific city, hospital or facility? You should be specific about the setting of your study.

It is also important to mention that this framework varies with the type of research question (such as descriptive, explanatory, evaluative or predictive). The table below summarizes the application of the PICO components per question type.

Table. PICO by type of Research Question

Source: Formulating the Research Question PICO Framework, CRENC (2025)

For example, we have a broad causal research question: What are the effects of antidepressants on the anxiety levels in Yaounde?

Breakdown of the PICOTS components:

• P (Population): Individuals with anxiety disorders in Yaoundé
• I (Intervention): Antidepressant treatment (e.g., SSRIs, SNRIs)
• C (Comparison/Control): No treatment or an alternative treatment (e.g., psychotherapy, placebo)
• O (Outcome): Change in anxiety levels (measured via standardized scales, e.g., GAD-7, HAM-A)
• T (Time): Over a 12-week period (or another appropriate time frame)
• S (Setting): Clinical and outpatients in Jamot Hospital in Yaounde

Now the refined question will look like this:

“In individuals diagnosed with anxiety disorders in Yaoundé, how does treatment with antidepressants (e.g., SSRIs or SNRIs) compared to no treatment or psychotherapy affect anxiety levels over a 12-week period in clinical and outpatients of Jamot hospital?”

This version makes the research question more specific, measurable, and applicable to research design, relevant and is additionally time bound (SMART).

2.5 Evaluate the feasibility, originality or novelty and significance of your research questions

When you will have a list of research questions you want to pursue, you will ask yourself “how do I decide which ones are worth your time and effort?” The following points will help you evaluate the feasibility, originality and significance of your research questions.

• Feasibility: Suppose you want to research the effectiveness of a mobile app for improving the adherence to antiretroviral therapy (ART) among people living with HIV in Cameroon. To answer this question, you need to consider the feasibility of your research project. Can you realistically answer the question with the resources, data skills and time that you have? Do you have access to the data, methods and tools that you need? Are there any ethical, legal or practical barriers that might prevent you from conducting the research?
• Originality: Is the question new or novel in your field of study? Does it address a gap in the existing literature or challenge a dominant paradigm? Does it offer a new perspective or a different angle on a familiar topic? For example: How does exposure to air pollution affect the cognitive development of children in urban areas? This question is original and novel because it explores a relatively under-researched topic in public health, namely the impact of air pollution on cognitive outcomes. It addresses a gap in the existing literature by focusing on a specific population (children in urban areas) and a specific outcome (cognitive development) that have not been extensively studied in relation to air pollution.
• Significance: Does the question matter to your discipline, society or institution? Does it have implications for theory, policy or practice? Does it contribute to the advancement of knowledge or the solution of a problem? For example, what are the effects of community-based interventions on the prevention and control of malaria in sub-Saharan Africa? This question is significant because it matters to the discipline of public health, as malaria is one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality in the region. It contributes to the advancement of knowledge by providing evidence-based recommendations for the optimal design and implementation of community-based interventions for malaria prevention and control.

Note that your research question should be ethical, meaning that it does not harm or exploit any individuals or groups involved in your research.

To narrow down your list of research questions, you can use these criteria to rank them from high to low priority. You can also ask for feedback from your peers, mentors or supervisors to get their opinions and suggestions. Remember that you can always revise your research question as you go along.

• Test Your Question

Like mentioned above, your final research question must be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time bounded.  You must ask yourself whether it can be answered using research methods.

3. Conclusion

Choosing a research question is one of the most important and challenging steps in any research project. It requires curiosity, creativity, and critical thinking. A good research question should be feasible, original, significant, and ethical. It should also reflect your own interests and goals, as well as the needs and expectations of your field. To choose a research question, you should start with a broad topic, review the existing literature, identify the gaps or challenges, and formulate specific and focused questions. You should also seek feedback from your peers, mentors, or supervisors, and be ready to revise your question as you progress with your research. By following these directories, you will be able to find a research question that is both interesting and meaningful to you and your field of study.

References

How to Write About Your Research Interests. Accepted Admissions Blog (2023, December 8). https://blog.accepted.com/writing-about-research-interests/

Brainstorming and Deciding On Questions—Mann Learning Technologies Committee—Dashboard. (n.d.). Retrieved January 24, 2024, from https://confluence.cornell.edu/display/mannltc/Brainstorming+and+Deciding+On+Questions

CRENC. (2025, January 30). Formulating the research question PICO Framework [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/rkfaR3xmaTM

DeCarlo, M. (2018). 8.5 Feasibility and importance. https://pressbooks.pub/scientificinquiryinsocialwork/chapter/8-5-feasibility-and-importance/

How do I identify a research gap during the literature review? (2021, January 29). Editage Insights. https://www.editage.com/insights/how-do-i-identify-a-research-gap-during-the-literature-review

Identify Your Research Interests | Undergraduate Research | University of Arizona. (n.d.). Retrieved January 24, 2024, from https://ur.arizona.edu/content/identify-your-research-interests

McCombes, S. (2022, October 30). 10 Research Question Examples to Guide Your Research Project. Scribbr. https://www.scribbr.com/research-process/research-question-examples/

McCombes, S. (2023, January 2). How to Write a Literature Review | Guide, Examples, & Templates. Scribbr. https://www.scribbr.com/dissertation/literature-review/

Researching Programs: Profiling Your Research Interests—Purdue OWL®—Purdue University. (n.d.). Retrieved January 24, 2024, from https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/graduate_school_applications/graduate_school_applications_researching_programs/research_programs_profiling_your_research_interests.html