This paper builds on the recently emerged scholarship of researcher development and considers a potential conceptual framework to inform methodology in research on researcher development. Specifically, we examining the knowledge base of researcher development and discussing a clinical resources like socio-cultural theory works done by Lev Vygotsky (1931 /1997), extensions, elaborations, and refinements of socio-cultural theory can be found in writings activity theory (Chaiklin, Lave, 1993; Leontiev, 1981) and cultural-historical activity theory (Cole, 1996; Cole, Engestrom, 1994) etc. and draws upon Vygotskian socio-cultural and activity theory. At the end of the paper, we present analysis of qualitative study data from existing researcher development literature to illustrate how this framework can be applied empirically.