---
title: "Research question"
chunk: 2/3
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Research_question"
category: "reference"
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
date_saved: "2026-05-05T03:42:55.419390+00:00"
instance: "kb-cron"
---

In terms of priorities and related concepts, the proposed strategy of differential technological development suggests research to focus primarily on questions and tools that are thought to increase safety and mitigate issues rather than risky technologies which are instead best to delay. Concerning control strategies for gene drives, researchers have however cautioned that such may lead to a counterproductive false sense of security. Not all technological progress may be beneficial in general or in contemporary contexts (environments or systems) and various research may for example result in engineered pandemics.
Many studies "ask uninteresting research questions, [and] make only marginal contributions". One study suggests that while research on climate change "is valuable, it does not tackle head-on the most urgent question: how to change society to mitigate climate change right now". In the ethical framework of effective altruism, research questions with the greatest potential benefits from investments (not necessarily of financial nature) are identified to maximize research benefits. 80,000 Hours has compiled a small list of "Research questions that could have a big social impact, organised by discipline". In public health research, "it is vital that research questions posed are important and that funded research meets a research need or a gap in evidence".

=== ICTs, participation and routine procedures ===

Platforms, e.g. citizen science ones, can "support identification of problems, formulation of research questions, and study design". Participatory research can "improve study outcomes and foster greater data accessibility and utility as well as increase public transparency". Participants can have continued discussions and iterations regarding new questions. Research questions can be or are positioned at varying levels of detail – from broad to very specific questions – which are semantically or can be displayed as nested – for instance via category trees. In one platform, about invasion science and based on Wikidata, users "can zoom into the major research questions and hypotheses" of the field, "which are connected to the relevant studies published in the field and, if available, the underlying raw data" with tools like the Wikimedia project Scholia. Individuals "who can ask novel, field-altering questions" may vary from "those who can answer them" or vary per question. Translation of a (societal) problem "from its meaning in an everyday context into a scientifically valid research question means defining the goals of research in such a way that their contribution to practical solutions of a societal problem is narrow enough to be useful". Both everyday practical knowledge and scientific knowledge play a role in this process. In interdisciplinary research, integration "takes place at the level of the posing of research questions in the overlapping areas between various disciplines". There is research into enabling presenting scholarly knowledge "flexibly enriched with contextual information" for specific research questions.
Identification of open research questions may be useful for the adoption and application of science in society and accelerating specific research and development. There has been a suggestion for establishing a public non-profit organization that would identify "gaps in the science that need addressing", referring to the field of sustainable food system.

=== Examples and breadth of "research questions" ===
Similar to outlining open research questions, there have also been proposals to e.g. combine specific fields or sources of data and knowledge as the subject or method of new research or to engage more and more scientifically in specific research topics along with the establishment of new high-quality data gathering systems. One approach for the generation of research questions is [identifying, highlighting, and] challenging assumptions of existing theories and studies.
Sometimes research questions overlap with or also refer to challenges of a specific theory or field such as how to solve known problems with the Standard Model. Research issues and knowledge gaps can also overlap or be synonymous.
Examples of lists of open significant research questions in reviews include a list of "major outstanding questions" for (applied) human life extension, "fundamental" research questions in subterranean biology, open research questions for digital twins (across fields), open questions in performance measurement of sustainable supply chains, knowledge gaps in antimicrobial resistance, and unaddressed or neglected questions in the literature about 100% renewable energy systems.

== Types and purpose ==
The research question serves two purposes

It determines where and what kind of research the writer will be looking for.
It identifies the specific objectives the study or paper will address.
Therefore, the writer must first identify the type of study (qualitative, quantitative, or mixed) before the research question is developed.

=== Qualitative study ===
A qualitative study seeks to learn why or how, so the writer's research must be directed at determining the what, why and how of the research topic. Therefore, when crafting a research question for a qualitative study, the writer will need to ask a why or how question about the topic. For example: How did the company successfully market its new product? The sources needed for qualitative research typically include print and internet texts (written words), audio and visual media.
Here is Creswell's (2009) example of a script for a qualitative research central question:

_________ (How or what) is the _________ ("story for" for narrative research; "meaning of" the phenomenon for phenomenology; "theory that explains the process of" for grounded theory; "culture-sharing pattern" for ethnography; "issue" in the "case" for case study) of _________ (central phenomenon) for _________ (participants) at _________ (research site).

=== Quantitative study ===
A quantitative study seeks to learn where, or when, so the writer's research must be directed at determining the where, or when of the research topic. Therefore, when crafting a research question for a quantitative study, the writer will need to ask a where, or when question about the topic. For example: Where should the company market its new product? Unlike a qualitative study, a quantitative study is mathematical analysis of the research topic, so the writer's research will consist of numbers and statistics.
Here is Creswell's (2009) example of a script for a quantitative research question: