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    FINER and PICO

    Comparator FINER Hypothesis Testing Intervention Outcome PICO Population Post-positivism Research Design Research Question Sampling Method Statistical Power Analysis Statistics

    An amalgamation of philosophy and objectivity

    The research question is the foundation of everything empirical

    Research questions (and answering them) are always the primary focus of anything and everything empirical, methodological, epidemiological, and statistical. Without a research question, there is no reason to conduct a study or run statistics.

    The following are DIRECTLY derived from research questions:

    1. Null and alternative hypotheses (hypothesis testing and inferential statistics)
    2. Research design (observation or experimental)
    3. Population of interest (inclusion and exclusion criteria) 
    4. Sampling method (non-probability or probability)
    5. Intervention or independent variable (categorical, ordinal, or continuous)
    6. Confounding or control variables (secondary, tertiary, and ancillary research questions)
    7. Comparator or control treatment (categorical, ordinal, or continuous)
    8. Outcome or dependent variable (categorical, ordinal, or continuous)
    9. Outcome and design for an a priori power analysis to calculate sample size
    10. Structure of the database (between-subjects, within-subjects, or multivariate) and code book
    11. Statistical tests used (descriptive, between-subjects, within-subjects, correlations, survival, or multivariate)

    Researchers must take the appropriate amount of time to fully formulate and refine research questions. SO MUCH is dependent upon it for their study. Luckily, this task is made easier with the use of two prevalent mnemonics: FINER (feasible, interesting, novel, ethical, relevant) and PICO (population, intervention, comparator, outcome).

    FINER is a more of a philosophy for writing research questions. The arguments for the "F," "I," "N," "E," and "R" are all and informed upon by the empirical literature in the area of empirical or clinical interest. Researchers especially have to be well vested in the most current literature in order to make sound arguments for interesting, novel, and relevant questions.

    PICO is employed to explicitly and operationally define the population of interest, the intervention, the comparator, and the outcome in a research question. It is also more readily applicable in busy clinical and empirical environments and when writing literature search queries.  

    These two mnemonics compliment each other very well in applied empirical and clinical environments. The post-positivist philosophy of social and medical sciences lends itself well to FINER. Measurement of observable constructs and the application of experimental designs through the PICO mnemonic is also strongly reflective of a post-positivist philosophical orientation. Together, the "why" and "what" questions associated with conducting research can be argued in an evidence-based, objective, and logically sound fashion.
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    Feasible research questions are answerable

    Effect Size Feasible Research Questions Research Design Research Question Sample Size Statistical Power Analysis Statistical-power-test

    Feasible research in terms of scope, time, resources, and expertise

    Changing the face of medicine versus completing a research study

    I have conducted thousands of statistical consultations over the years and have worked with many novice resident researchers over that time. One cannot help but admire the spirit, energy, and motivation of young people wanting to make an impact on medicine through research. I enjoy the zeal and drive of bright people wanting to be physicians and researchers. This is a good thing!

    That being said, I spend a lot of my time with novice researchers using deductive reasoning to hone down their research questions into something tangible and feasible. They come into the office with an idea that will change medicine forever and we will be cruising around the Caribbean in a year! This has never been researched before!  No one has ever done this before! Trust me, I want all of these proclamations to be true and I also want to change the face of medicine. Yet, most times it just not feasible to do so given the time, resources, participants, competencies and environment associated with the study.

    I focus on a few primary areas when it comes to feasible research questions with my consultees:

    1. Participant pool - Are there enough participants available in the immediate clinical or empirical environment to achieve adequate statistical power for inferential analyses? How will you recruit the participants? What are your inclusion and exclusion criteria? Inclusion and exclusion criteria may need to be modified to increase sample size.

    2. Effect size - Small effect sizes require large sample sizes.    

    3. Research design - Retrospective designs are always more feasible because the data already exists.

    4. Communication - Research never occurs in isolation. Researchers should communicate and collaborate with their peers regarding their research projects. Attendings and academic physicians can give you ideas on how to feasibly conduct your research.

    5. Time - What is the time frame for the study from inception to publication? How much time do you have to set aside for the research study? Does the completion of your research coincide with abstract deadlines of interest?

    6. Power analysis - Conduct an a priori power anlaysis based on an evidence-based measure of effect to see if the study is feasible in regards to sample size needed to achieve power.
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    Statistical tests

    Hypothesis Testing Research Question Statistics

    Statistical tests are used to answer research questions

    It's not about the statistics, it's about the question.

    In my experience, statistics is a cognitive dissonance-inducing mathematical science and no one tends to recall their personal and professional statistical experiences with much zeal. It's as if there is an automatic recoil when the topic of statistics enters the discussion and planning of a research study. The literature has posited that statistics are intimidating and nebulous because many people do not possess the necessary competencies and experience with statistics and also people do not understand the lexicon of the science.

    The most important thing to remember about applied statistics, despite their prevalence, relevance, and utility in everyday life, is that they are tools that human beings use to communicate the results of data analysis. Hypothesis testing is employed in empirical research so that researchers can present their findings in a relative context that is interpretable and applicable in other research and applied environments.

    Statistics are useful ONLY when they are used to answer useful, appropriate, answerable, relevant, and valid research questions that are grounded in the empirical literature.
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    The research question is the foundation of everything empirical

    FINER PICO Research Question

    Foundation for measurement, design, power, and statistics

    80% of preliminary study planning should be given to the research question

    As a biostatistical consultant at an academic regional medical campus, I am supposed to spend 80% of my time working with residents, fellows, faculty, clinicians, researchers, nurses, pharmacists, and hospital staff to formulate and refine their research question. THAT is how important it is to any research study. 

    A research question is cultivated through researchers' efforts to know the existing literature, their clinical expertise and interests, their collaboration with peers, and their intrinsic motivation towards scientific discovery and innovation. Answerable, appropriate, meaningful, and purposeful research questions make valid and needed contributions to the literature.

    Deductive reasoning should be used when formulating a research question. Oftentimes, researchers will want to answer EVERY possible question and collect data on EVERY single variable that they can in hopes of finding SOMETHING SIGNIFICANT. This is not the way that REAL science works. A focused and refined research question is the basis for constructing and executing research. This does not mean that researchers cannot ask secondary, tertiary, and ancillary research questions as demographic, clinical, and confounding variables are yielded from literature reviews! Of course, these are important questions to ask and often lead to great discoveries! (Example:  Viagra) However, having ONE research question that serves as the foundation for a study is extremely important and should not be overlooked!

    Many novice researchers will plan an entire study around a type of research design or a statistic that they read in an article. REMEMBER, research designs and statistical tests are chosen to answer researcher questions, NOT the inverse.

    All of this being said, there are two existing frameworks that greatly assist in formulating (FINER) and refining (PICO) research questions. FINER stands for feasible, interesting, novel, interesting, and relevant. PICO stands for population, intervention, comparator, and outcome.