Review of Literature

You have to review the literature when conducting research for some good reasons:

1. To define the frontiers of the field.
2. To place your research questions in perspective.
3. To limit your research questions and define the concepts of the study.
4. To understand the contradictory results in an area.
5. To choose the most appropriate methodology.
6. To avoid unintentional replication.
7. To help interpret the significance of the study.

Basically you review theories and previous studies which are relevant to the topic of your research. You could read them in the following scientific texts:
- books
- journals
- conference papers
- theses or dissertations

...BUT NOT the following popular texts:
- newspapers
- magazines
- encyclopedias

One of you asked me, "Can we quote resources from the internet?" Well, yes, you can. However, I usually allow my students to quote two types of online resources only: ebooks and ejournals. These two have been reviewed and edited by experts before being published online, so you could quote them. Quoting websites and blogs are strongly not recommended because no one reviewed the contents before they are published online.