To be confident you have something to add to the body of existing knowledge in the area and to put your ideas in the wider context it is important to be aware of other published work on the topic. You must demonstrate this understanding to readers and you then need to reference previous work appropriately.
If you are new to literature searching, you may find the below resources helpful to get you started:
How to search | Finding and using knowledge
A guide to effective literature searching | eLearning
It is essential to assess the quality of the resources you find in your literature search. Critical appraisal skills help you identify good quality articles to inform your research:
Keeping an accurate list of references is also essential as this helps you keep track of what and where you have read something. this also ensures you are giving proper credit to others for their work and avoid plagiarism or copyright infringement: