SPIDER Question Generator
Choose a framework, fill in its elements in your own words, and get a draft review question, a list of the elements, and a Boolean search string from the ones you switch on. SPIDER, SPICE, PEO, PCC and ECLIPSE are covered here; PICO has its own tool. Honest templates, no AI. Free, no sign-up.
SPIDER — Sample, Phenomenon of Interest, Design, Evaluation, Research type
Qualitative and mixed-methods evidence synthesis: questions about experiences, views and perceptions.
Cooke, Smith and Booth, Qualitative Health Research, 2012
Your SPIDER elements
Who is being studied?
Leave blank to search for the element as written above.
The experience, behaviour or decision you want to understand.
Leave blank to search for the element as written above.
How the studies gathered data.
Leave blank to search for the element as written above.
The outcomes you care about: views, attitudes, experiences.
Leave blank to search for the element as written above.
The kinds of study to include.
Leave blank to search for the element as written above.
Your draft SPIDER question
What are the experiences of [Sample] regarding [Phenomenon of Interest]?
A draft to edit, not a finished question. Check that it can be answered by the kind of study you expect to find.
The elements as a list
| Element | Your words |
|---|---|
| S — Sample | – |
| PI — Phenomenon of Interest | – |
| D — Design | – |
| E — Evaluation | – |
| R — Research type | – |
Search terms
Fill in an element marked “Use in the search string” to see its search block.
For a clinical question about an intervention, use the PICO Question Generator
How to Use the SPIDER Question Generator
- 1. Choose a framework. Use the table below if you are unsure. SPIDER suits qualitative questions, PCC scoping reviews, and SPICE, PEO and ECLIPSE questions about settings, exposures and services.
- 2. Fill in the elements. Each box has a prompt and an example. Write each element the way it should read inside a sentence.
- 3. Add search terms. Under each element, list the keywords and synonyms you would search, one per line. Leave it blank to search the element as written.
- 4. Copy what you need. Take the draft question, the element list, or the search string — or open the terms in the Boolean Search String Builder to get PubMed, Scopus and other database syntax.
Choosing a Framework
| Framework | Stands for | Use it for |
|---|---|---|
| SPIDER | Sample, Phenomenon of Interest, Design, Evaluation, Research type | Qualitative and mixed-methods evidence synthesis: experiences, views and perceptions. |
| SPICE | Setting, Perspective, Intervention, Comparison, Evaluation | Social science, education and service evaluation, where setting and perspective matter. |
| PEO | Population, Exposure, Outcome | Exposure and experience questions where no one chose the exposure, such as a working condition. |
| PCC | Population, Concept, Context | Scoping reviews that map what is known about a concept. |
| ECLIPSE | Expectation, Client group, Location, Impact, Professionals, SErvice | Health policy and service-management questions. |
For a clinical question about whether an intervention works, use the PICO Question Generator.
SPIDER was proposed by Cooke, Smith and Booth in 2012 as an alternative to PICO for qualitative research, where there is often no comparison and no measurable outcome. SPICE comes from Booth (2006), and ECLIPSE from Wildridge and Bell (2002). PEO and PCC are used in the Joanna Briggs Institute's Manual for Evidence Synthesis, PCC being its framework for scoping reviews. Frameworks are aids to thinking: no review is wrong for not using one, and your supervisor, funder or journal may name the one they expect.
Worked Examples
These are the draft questions the tool writes from the example text in each framework's boxes.
| Framework | Draft question |
|---|---|
| SPIDER | What are the experiences of women undergoing IVF treatment regarding treatment decisions? |
| SPICE | For adult patients with diabetes in primary care, what is the effect of telehealth follow-up compared with in-person follow-up on patient satisfaction? |
| PEO | What is the association between night-shift work and burnout among hospital nurses? |
| PCC | What is known about loneliness interventions among older adults in residential care? |
| ECLIPSE | How can an outpatient falls clinic for older adults in rural hospitals, delivered by physiotherapists, achieve shorter waiting times and fewer missed appointments? |
Read each draft critically. The template supplies the grammar; you supply the meaning. If the sentence sounds odd, the element probably needs rewording: “older adults with falls” works as a client group, “falls” alone does not.
From Elements to a Search
A framework element is a concept in your search. Within a concept, synonyms are joined with OR; the concepts are joined with AND. With the PEO example, listing “nurse” and “nursing staff” for the population produces `(nurse OR "nursing staff") AND "night shift" AND burnout`.
- Not every element is searched by default. Design, evaluation and research-type terms are poorly indexed and often narrow a first search too far, so they start switched off. Switch them on if you get too many results.
- Optional elements stay out of the question when empty. A comparison in SPICE, the context in PCC and the impact in ECLIPSE are written into the sentence only if you fill them in.
- Add controlled vocabulary separately. The search string uses words as written. For PubMed, find the matching headings with the MeSH Term Finder.
How It Works
Honest templates, no AI. Each framework has one fixed sentence with slots for its elements; the tool fills the slots with your words and shows an empty one as its bracketed name. It runs in your browser and uploads nothing; your terms travel only if you follow the link to the Boolean Search String Builder, which carries them in its address.
Frequently Asked Questions
- What is the SPIDER tool?
- SPIDER is a framework for formulating questions in qualitative and mixed-methods evidence synthesis: Sample, Phenomenon of Interest, Design, Evaluation and Research type. Cooke, Smith and Booth proposed it in 2012 as an alternative to PICO.
- What is the difference between SPIDER and PICO?
- PICO is built for questions about interventions, with a population, an intervention, a comparison and an outcome. SPIDER replaces those with a sample, a phenomenon of interest, the study design, an evaluation and a research type, which fit questions about experiences better.
- When should I use SPICE?
- SPICE suits questions in education, social care and service evaluation, where the setting and whose perspective it is matter as much as the intervention. Its five elements are Setting, Perspective, Intervention or interest, Comparison and Evaluation.
- What is PEO and when is it used?
- PEO stands for Population, Exposure and Outcome. It is used for questions where the exposure is something people have or experience, not something a researcher assigns, and for some qualitative questions about how people experience a situation.
- Which framework should I use for a scoping review?
- PCC — Population, Concept, Context — is the framework the Joanna Briggs Institute recommends for scoping reviews. It keeps the question broad enough to map a topic instead of testing one effect.
- Do I have to fill in every element?
- No. Fill in the ones that define your question. Elements marked optional leave the draft question when empty, and an element you do not switch on for the search is left out of the search string.
- Can I use these frameworks for a literature review that is not a systematic review?
- Yes. A framework helps any review focus its question and choose its search concepts. A narrative literature review can use one lightly; a systematic or scoping review should name the framework in its protocol and report.