This paper compares the research conceptions of Dutch lecturers in professional higher education (N=16) to the research conceptions of university lecturers (N=20). In this study, lecturers of professional higher education each created a log of all work-related activities over a ten day period (Van Eekelen, 2005; Kahneman, Krueger, et al, 2004). Structured interviews were conducted with the lecturers asking them to discuss these logs and to classify each activity as research or not research, and to explain their rationale for each decision. Similar interviews were conducted with university lecturers, then based on a list of activities provided by the interviewers. After transcription, the statements were analyzed based on discourse analysis and content analysis. The preliminary results show that lecturers in professional fields all use four, similar types of discursive strategies are distinguished to qualify an activity as ‘research’ or ‘not research’. The frequency of the four types used differs. This implies that lecturers in professional fields in higher education can be expected to understand each others’ discursive structures when they argue about research activities, but they do not always agree what type of argumental structure is most appropriate. These results will be compared to the sample of university lecturers.