Formulation of research questions for different study designs

Background: Research questions may be said to be related to the study designs. By reading research question, the reader may be able to ‘tell’ what kind of study design the researcher may adopt for the study. In this article, research questions for different study designs and how to formulate them, is discussed. The necessity for this article has been informed by concerns raised by many research students on lack of proper understanding of the concept as discussed by different authors. Methods: Discussion is done in a simple, brief and clear manner based on literature review and authors’ experiences as researchers and nurse educators. Result: This is a discussion paper. Conclusion: In this article, it is noted that research questions are formulated by the researcher based on the problem under the study and study design.  Formulation of appropriate research questions for different study designs may be facilitated by the use of PICOT tool.