There are different ways to develop and refine research questions. You need to think about your research topic and identify what you are going to explore, read related studies and refine your research questions if necessary.
Here we have introduced commonly used mnemonic tools to formulate research questions in evidence-based practice. They help researchers and healthcare professionals structure their questions by identifying key components and variables.
PICO stands for Population, Intervention, Comparison, and Outcome. It is primarily used in clinical research and healthcare settings. The PICO framework helps researchers develop research questions by specifying the population, exploring the central concept, and considering the context in which the research takes place. PICO is more appropriate for intervention questions about therapy, diagnosis, prognosis, and aetiology.
PCC stands for Population, Concept, and Context. It is a broader framework used in qualitative research and social sciences. PCC is introduced by Joanna Briggs Institute for Scoping reviews. The PCC framework helps researchers develop research questions by specifying the population, exploring the central concept, and considering the context in which the research takes place.
There a few more tools which helps you to formulate your research question include:
SPICE (Setting - where? Perspective - for whom? Intervention - what? Comparision - what else? Evaluation - with what results?)
SPIDER (Sample, Phenomenon, Design, Evaluation, Research type) (a tool for qualitative and mixed methods research)
The JBI Manual for Evidence Synthesis describes a variety of appropriate search mnemonics for different kinds of literature reviews:
PICo (Population, Phenomena of Interest, Context) for qualitative reviews
CoCoPop (Condition, Context, Population) for prevalence and incidence reviews
PIRD (Population, Index Test, Reference Test, Diagnosis) for diagnostic text accuracy reviews
PEO (Population, Exposure, Outcome) for etiology and risk reviews