Skip to Main Content
Sir Alex Ferguson Library Guides

Systematic review

How do I develop a research question for systematic reveiw?

Once you have identified a topic to investigate you need to define a clear and answerable question for the systematic review. Some initial scoping searches will be needed to check the question is:

  • Manageable - not too broad or too narrow 
  • Answerable - relevant literature is available 
  • Has not already been done recently 

You may need to explore a few different versions of the question depending on what you find during these initial searches. The question must be clearly defined and it may be useful to use a research question framework such as PICO (population, intervention, comparison, outcome) or SPICE (setting, perspective, intervention, comparison, evaluation) to help structure both the question and the search terms. For more information and examples of research question frameworks visit our guide to research question frameworks

Copyright © Glasgow Caledonian University. Terms & Conditions | Privacy Policy