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Albert S. Cook Library

Searching for Evidence in the Health Professions

A: Assess Your Topic, Scope, and Goals

icon of the letter AAssess Your Topic, Scope, and Goals

Assess the topic, scope, and goals of your project. If your goal is a literature review, understand the type of literature review and the methodology involved. This step is a good time to do some preliminary background searching to get an idea of what’s already been done. Hint: look for a question development framework that will help you frame your topic.

Formulating Your Research Topic

Sometimes referred to as clinical inquiry, formulating your research topic includes:

...asking the right questions in the right way, finding the best available evidence, and assessing what practice change may be needed...

From Wyant, T. (2018). A spirit of inquiry leads to evidence-based answers to practice questions. ONS Voice. https://voice.ons.org/news-and-views/a-spirit-of-inquiry-leads-to-evidence-based-answers-to-practice-questions.

You can get started off right by first:

  • Gathering background information on your topic. Do a quick search to see what’s been written about the topic so far.
  • Considering your audience. Who will be interested in this issue?
  • Identifying a question framework to use to achieve clarity in the research question.
  • Soliciting input from collaborators, peers, and mentors.
  • Consulting with a librarian or information professional to assist you with a thorough search.

Question Development Frameworks

Try one of these tried and true clinical or quantitative research question frameworks. Not sure where to start? PICO is the most common clinical question framework. and PEO works well for public health and epidemiology.

CoCoPop

  • Condition, Context, Population
  • Aromataris, E., & Munn, Z. (2017). Joanna Briggs Institute reviewer's manual. The Joanna Briggs Institute. Available from JBI Manual for Evidence Synthesis.

PEO

  • Population, Exposure of Interest, Outcome or Response
  • Aromataris, E., & Munn, Z. (2017). Joanna Briggs Institute reviewer's manual. The Joanna Briggs Institute. Available from JBI Manual for Evidence Synthesis.

PICO

PICOS

  • Population or Problem, Intervention or Exposure, Comparison or Control, Outcome, Study Type
  • Methley, A. M., Campbell, S., Chew-Graham, C., McNally, R., & Cheraghi-Sohi, S. (2014). PICO, PICOS and SPIDER: a comparison study of specificity and sensitivity in three search tools for qualitative systematic reviews. BMC health services research, 14, 579. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-014-0579-0.

PICOT

  • Population or Problem, Intervention or Exposure, Comparison or Control, Outcome, Time
  • Richardson, W. S., Wilson, M. C., Nishikawa, J., & Hayward, R. S. (1995). The well-built clinical question: A key to evidence-based decisions. ACP Journal Club, 123(3), A12-A12. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/7582737/

PIRD

  • Population, Index Test, Reference Test, Diagnosis of Interest
  • Aromataris, E., & Munn, Z. (2017). Joanna Briggs Institute reviewer's manual. The Joanna Briggs Institute. Available from JBI Manual for Evidence Synthesis.

Exercise 1: Assessment

Assessment Help

Before you jump in, take some time to assess and think through the process. Stuck? Reach out to your librarian.

Assessment Task

Open a Word document or get a blank piece of paper. Write down some thoughts on the prompt below.

Do you have a research topic in mind? If so, describe it briefly. If it helps, use one of the Question Development Frameworks to identify your major concepts.