TimelyScholarFree Tools › Research Question Generator
Turn a broad topic into a focused, answerable research question. Fill in the population, variables and outcome, choose the type of question and check your draft against the FINER criteria.
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Often answered with a correlational, cohort or case-control design.
Add the population and outcome to make the question specific enough to answer.
Your entries are saved in this browser only. Refine the wording with your supervisor or team and check that the question has not already been answered.
Population, setting, exposure or intervention, comparison and outcome.
Descriptive, comparative, relationship, intervention or qualitative.
Work through the FINER criteria before you commit to the question.
A good research question names who is studied, what is measured or explored and, where relevant, what is being compared. The type of question shapes the study design: effect questions are best answered by trials, while questions about experiences suit qualitative methods.
The FINER criteria ask whether a question is feasible, interesting, novel, ethical and relevant. Checking a draft against them early helps avoid questions that cannot be answered with the resources available or that have already been answered.
PICO is a framework for clinical questions about interventions. This tool also covers descriptive, relationship and qualitative questions; for clinical effect questions, use the PICO/PICOT question generator.
For quantitative studies that test an effect or association, yes: the hypothesis states the answer you expect and is tested by the study.