Designed for novice as well as more experienced researchers embarking on a thesis or dissertation, as well as those advising them, this book presents conceptual frameworks as a mechanism for aligning literature review, research design, and methodology. Defined as an argument about why the topic of a study matters, and why the methods proposed to study it are appropriate and rigorous, the book explores the conceptual framework as both a process and a framework that helps to direct and ground researchers as they work through common research challenges.