This article describes the five major phases of research associated with Strategic Frame Analysis, an approach to communications research and practice that advances new ways of pursuing social change of entrenched and complex social problems. This multimethod approach is characterized by multidisciplinary and iterative research techniques that give emphasis to empirical testing of potential frame effects. The logic behind this constellation of methods and the order in which they are taken up in the research cycle is discussed as an introduction to the articles that follow that review specific parts of the research trajectory. (Contains 8 notes.)