104 104 © 2018 John Wiley & Sons Ltd and The Association for the Study of Medical Education. THE CLINICAL TEACHER 2018; 15: 104–108 How to... How to…write a good research question Karen Mattick 1 , Jenny Johnston 2 and Anne de la Croix 3,4 1 Centre for Research in Professional Learning, University of Exeter, Exeter, UK 2 School of Medicine, Dentistry and Biomedical Sciences, Queen’s University Belfast, Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK 3 LEARN! Academy, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands 4 VUmc School of Medical Sciences, Amsterdam, the Netherlands SUMMARY This paper, on writing research questions, is the first in a series that aims to support novice researchers within clinical educa- tion, particularly those undertak- ing their first qualitative study. Put simply, a research question is a question that a research project sets out to answer. Most research questions will lead to a project that aims to generate new insights, but the target audi- ence and the methodology will vary widely. The term ‘evaluation question’ is used less commonly, but the same principles apply. The key difference is that evaluation questions are typically more fo- cused on the immediate context: for example, the effectiveness of an educational intervention in a particular setting. Whether your ambition is for research or evalu- ation, we hope that you will find this paper helpful for designing your own educational projects. A research question is a question that a research project sets out to answer