Design your research question

Before drafting a research question, consider what you want your research to achieve. Different purposes lead to different types of questions.

Common research question types include:

• Descriptive questions focus on identifying and outlining characteristics or features of a phenomenon.
• Example: What conditions or factors make it unsafe for someone to receive the AstraZeneca COVID‑19 vaccine?
• Explanatory questions aim to investigate causes or relationships.
• Example: Does the AstraZeneca COVID‑19 vaccine cause specific health complications?
• Exploratory questions are used where limited research currently exists.
• Example: How do COVID‑19 vaccines impact other aspects of human health?
• Comparative questions examine similarities or differences between groups, cases, or interventions.
• Example: How does the AstraZeneca vaccine compare with Moderna and Pfizer in terms of side effects?
• Predictive questions focus on forecasting future outcomes or trends.
• Example: How long is the AstraZeneca vaccine likely to maintain its effectiveness based on current uptake and variants?

• Philosophical questions focus on understanding the basis of something.
  • Example: What constitutes 'success' in terms of vaccine treatment?

Understanding the purpose of your question helps ensure it aligns with your research aims and chosen methodology.

Once you have identified a focused sub-topic, the next step is to shape it into a research question.

An effective research question needs to strike a balance:

• broad enough to support sustained scholarly inquiry
• focused enough to maintain clarity and avoid drifting into adjacent areas

Questions that are too broad can lead to unclear scope, while overly narrow questions may limit the significance of your research.

Research questions should be open-ended, rather than designed to produce a simple yes or no answer.

Closed questions tend to restrict discussion and limit analytical depth. For example:

• Is there left hemisphere dysfunction in middle‑aged autistic females?

Even more detailed and sophisticated versions can still be effectively closed:

• Are there statistically significant rates of left hemisphere dysfunction in middle‑aged autistic females, and do these correlate with evidence of savant syndrome?

Although these questions are precise, they encourage confirmation rather than exploration. 

Open questions invite interpretation, complexity and debate. One way to achieve this is by adjusting the wording of the question.

Common open question starters include:

• How … ?
• Why … ?
• To what extent … ?

For example:

• To what extent do statistically significant rates of left hemisphere dysfunction occur in middle‑aged autistic females, and how do these relate to evidence of savant syndrome?

This formulation allows for degrees of difference, competing explanations and nuanced findings.

Different research aims lend themselves to different question formulations. The examples below may help you experiment with wording.

Research aim	Example question formulations
Describing and exploring	What are the characteristics of X? How has X changed over time? How do individuals experience X?
Explaining and testing	What is the relationship between X and Y? How does X influence Y? What are the causes of X?
Evaluating and acting	How effective is X? What are the advantages and disadvantages of X? How can X be improved?

 

Your first version of a research question is rarely your final one. Refinement is an essential part of the process.

Test your question by asking yourself and others:

• Is the question clear and precise?
• Is it interesting and significant within the field?
• Is it sufficiently focused?
• Does it allow for complexity and critical analysis?
• Is it researchable within HDR constraints?
• Is there enough current literature to support the research?

Sharing your question with supervisors and colleagues, and discussing it in seminars or research groups, can help identify strengths and areas for further refinement. 

In doctoral research, it is also useful to distinguish between a guiding research question and a final research question. The guiding question provides direction for reading, analysis and methodological decisions, even though the question itself may continue to evolve as the project develops and only become clear late in the candidature.