Think of academic research as a conversation among scholars. There is already an ongoing dialogue or conversation about your topic. In order to contribute to that conversation, you must first catch up with what's already been said by engaging with the known literature and experts in the field.

• Set the background on what has been researched on a topic.
• Show why a topic is significant to a subject area.
• Discover relationships between ideas.
• Identify major themes & concepts.
• Identify critical gaps & points of disagreement.
• Help the researcher turn a network of articles into a coherent view of the literature.