Researching for your literature review: The research question

If you are having difficulty finding a suitable topic for your review, try thinking about the following:

• Areas of uncertainty
• Variations of practice 
• Assumptions in practice
• Existing review topics that may be outdated and could be revised to address a new element

Once you have your topic, put it into the format of a question or questions to be answered by the literature. 

Essentially a research question puts forward an hypothesis about a relationship, such as the relationship between an intervention and an outcome. For example: In P (population group) does I (intervention) result in O (outcome)? or Will I perform better than C at achieving O in population P?

The research question will guide the development of your search strategy so it's important that you take time to investigate the suitability of your proposed question.

The Library has a guide and video to guide you through the development of a good research question.

Generative AI tools can assist with both identifying a research area and developing your research question. Try Scopus AI (via Scopus database) to look at the emerging themes - potential hypotheses for your topic. This video by an academic language advisor in the Faculty of Education explains how you can use generative AI to develop a research question. 

This guide will provide a sample search for a health/medical research question, as well as for an education/social science research question. Choose which section you would like to work through.