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theory: newcomer characteristics, behaviours, and organizational efforts, their influences on newcomer adjustments and ultimately the outcomes of the process of organizational socialization [3]. This conceptual framework was not forced upon the data. It was used dialectically to both inform data analysis and lead to theory refinement. In their discussion, Atherley and colleagues based their implications and recommendations on an adapted version of the organizational socialization model that they started with [2]. Theory-informed research in medical education can take many shapes, from the example referred to above to quantitative research where theory informs hypothesis testing or qualitative research where theory determines how phenomena should be interpreted [4, 5]. Theory provides researchers with ‘ways of thinking about a problem or a study, or ways of representing how complex things work the way they do’ [6]. More broadly speaking, it offers a framework of concepts to apply to the research problem under investigation. Bordage explained that conceptual frameworks originate from [6]: