Before examining types of research designs it is important to be clear about the role and purpose of research design. We need to understand what research design is and what it is not. This is the aim of this text. The research design refers to the overall strategy that you choose to integrate the different components of the study in a coherent and logical way, thereby, ensuring you will effectively address the research problem; it constitutes the blueprint for the collection, measurement, and analysis of data. The way in which researchers develop research designs is fundamentally affected by whether the research question is descriptive or explanatory. This book covers several different options researchers can use to approach such questions.