The framework which follows draws on earlier statements covering similar ground, including those produced by GUARD (Atkinson 1995) and Historic Scotland (1998), and it acknowledges the work of the Medieval Settlement Research Group (MSRG 1996). The immediate impetus for this document came from an HRSG seminar on research into rural settlement held in March 2007 (www.molrs.org.uk/html/research.asp). That seminar identified the need for a new framework for rural settlement studies in Scotland; in response, this document is intended to provide useful and concise guidance to promote and inform research in the subject.