Great question – have you done a systematic review of literature yet? As part of evaluating your research question, it’s important to evaluate existing evidence, as it is possible your original question has been answered.
The CMH Medical Librarian can link you to great resources, including:
Systematic review of the literature is often time consuming but very informative. The time invested in examining the literature can be translated into writing a review article. In this way, one research project can yield more than one publication.
- Ex: During your literature review, you found nine studies on alcohol withdrawal and gabapentin use. One included a multicenter randomized controlled study and a meta-analysis addressing your specific research questions. You also find studies on other adjunctive therapies for alcohol withdrawal. What you did not identify was patient surveys on symptomatology or a specific cost analysis on this topic. You can tackle this gap in knowledge by designing a new study.
Don’t be dismayed if you find a number of studies on a topic. It is still possible that more information is needed, and you can investigate a gap in the literature by altering or tweaking your original research question. This process is considered a gap analysis.
- Ex: You decide to write a review article including more recent research since prior review articles were more than five years old. You could also change the question to evaluate cost analysis.
To better formulate your question, use the PICO (or PICOT) framework discussed in the next section (“How do I turn it into a research study?”). Often the question will dictate the research design so it’s important to evaluate the question.