Research and Scholarly Methods: Research Ideas, Questions, and Aims

ABSTRACT Whether you are an early‐career clinician with limited research experience eager to address a knowledge gap in your field, or an experienced senior investigator with an established funding and publication record, the challenges of how to begin and progress a research topic into a formal scientific investigation can be daunting. Each new project can present its own unique set of challenges. However, there are fundamental elements to the research process that underpin all scientific inquiry, and attention to these components at the outset will greatly increase the chances of successfully conducting and publishing the results of the scientific investigation which follows. Key to the success of any formal research undertaking is the existence of a clear nexus between the research idea, the research question, and the aims designed to test the research question. This review focuses on those critical initial steps when embarking on a research inquiry—beginning with idea generation, refining the idea into a researchable question, and finally, the development of the specific aim statements and their accompanying hypotheses. Research questions best positioned for successful investigation should be Feasible , Interesting , Novel , Ethical , and Relevant (FINER). Likewise, the use of the Population , Intervention , Comparison , Outcome , Timeline (PICOT) format to guide structuring and narrowing of the idea into the researchable question is highlighted. The FINER and PICOT frameworks help shape the foundation for the scientific hypotheses to be investigated, and the research methods to be undertaken to answer the research question.