1. The research question

1.2 Justification (or the context)

The first part of a protocol presents a justification for the question. A literature search is conducted to get an overview of the subject and to explore the questions that remain outstanding..

Your question may arise from issues that you have come across in your own clinical practice, or may have arisen from prior research carried our by you or by other researchers.

A young researcher often does have the hindsight to come up with a question and may need the advice of a senior researcher.