# Study Design and Research

| Screen | Route | Purpose | Key Actions |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| PICO Intro | `/projects/:id/pico` | Introduces the PICO (Population/Intervention/Comparison/Outcome) research-question builder | Start |
| PICO Builder | `/projects/:id/pico/builder` | Guided research-question builder | **Save & Continue** / **Next Step** |
| Study Design Intro | `/projects/:id/study-design` | Introduces study-design selection | Start |
| Study Design Selection | `/projects/:id/study-design/selection` | Choose a study design from the built-in catalog | Select a design card |
| Custom Question | `/projects/:id/study-design/question` | Enter a custom research question outside the catalog | — |
| Conferences | `/projects/:id/conferences` | Link the project to a conference submission target | Browse/select a conference from the catalog |

**PICO Builder (populated)**
![PICO Builder](_images/fig-09-02-pico-builder-populated.png)

The PICO Builder is a guided, four-step form: Population, Intervention/Risk, Outcome, and a final Review step.

**Choosing a Research Category**
![PICO category choosing](_images/fig-09-06-pico-category-choosing.png)

On the Review step of the PICO Builder, choose a research category — Diagnosis, Prognosis, Treatment, Harm, or Quality Improvement (QI) — that best matches your research question. This choice also determines which study designs are recommended in the next step. Once you select **Save question**, the category is locked and cannot be changed for that research question.

**Custom Question**
![Custom Question Builder](_images/fig-09-07-custom-question.png)

Instead of the guided PICO framework, you can choose **Custom** on the Overview tab's "Research question style" selector to write your research question freely in your own words, then assign it a category the same way as above.

**Study Design Selection**
![Study Design Selection](_images/fig-09-04-study-design-selection.png)

Study designs are grouped into **Recommended** (matched to your research category) and **Other** (all designs across every category) tabs. Each design card shows its time requirement, the statistical measures it produces, what data it collects, and key design notes.

**Select Target Conference**
![Conference Linked](_images/fig-09-05-conferences-linked.png)

Choose up to 3 conferences as submission targets. Search by name or city, sort by upcoming date or name, and switch between grid and list views. A selected conference is marked with a checkmark and a blue border; select **Confirm conference** to save your choices.

A project is not "submission-ready" until its research configuration (research question, study design) is complete. See [Workflows](workflows) for the full research setup sequence.