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Developing the Research Question and Conducting the Literature Search

This one-hour online training in the NIH Library Evidence Synthesis Review Series introduces techniques and frameworks to help build an answerable review question suitable for differing types of evidence synthesis reviews.  This training presents well known frameworks such as PICO for systematic reviews, and PCC for scoping reviews and introduces some lesser-known frameworks that may be helpful. The training also touches on the requirements and process for the evidence synthesis literature review.  

By the end of this training, attendees will be able to: 

  • Understand the importance of and characteristics of good research questions 

  • Compare and contrast research question frameworks designed for different academic disciplines, study types and evidence synthesis reviews 

  • Identify the best frameworks to help ask answerable research questions 

  • Describe what is involved in the literature search process 

Attendees are not expected to have prior knowledge of how to develop a research question, or how to conduct a literature search. It is recommended that those planning to undertake an evidence synthesis review should register for the subsequent Evidence Synthesis Training series that take a deeper dive into the required methods for conducting a review.  

Upcoming Sessions

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