Research guides: VIC 170: Forming a Research Question

Develop a Search Question from a Research Scenario

Searching the Literature: A Guide to Comprehensive Searching in the Health Sciences
Students and researchers in the health sciences are often required to conduct comprehensive searches of the literature. Follow the steps in this guide to learn how this process works.
Using PICO
Short tutorial on how to take a clinical scenario for a medical question -- a patient with carpal tunnel syndrome who wants to avoid surgery -- and turn it into a PICO question.

P	I	C	O
Essential tremor Essential tremor* Famil* tremor* Tremor*	MRI-assisted ultrasound MRI-guided ultrasound MRI adj2 ultrasound Ultrasonic therapy/therapies/therap*	None OR other surgery OR drug therapy	Improved symptoms Lower risk
MeSH = Medical Subject Heading
Essential tremor is a MeSH ---Look at Scope Note to see date of first use, definition, related terms ---Look at the MeSH tree to see broader or narrower terms Essential tremor* - search as a keyword to broaden results	Magnetic resonance imaging is a MeSH Ultrasonic therapy is a MeSH

Research questions, hypotheses and objectives
Discusses important considerations in the development of a research question and hypothesis and in defining objectives for research.
Understanding and Using the Scientific Method
Designed for science fair projects but a useful introduction to the scientific method. From FactMonster.

PICO Worksheet
Figure out your searchable research question using PICO -- Population/Intervention/Comparison/Outcome
Finding Articles Flowchart