In addition to the ethical standards that affect all research, professional bodies have established standards of professional conduct that affects research. These typically apply to the utilitarian forms of research such as contract research.

In practice, each major research organization must have a research ethics committee charged with the responsibility to scrutinize every piece of proposed research and grant written permission before a study may proceed.

Nonempirical sources are more likely to discuss the general issues related to a topic whereas empirical sources are more likely to describe the groups studied and the methods used in the study (e.g., surveys, observations).

Experiential reports may provide creative ideas for educational practice, and as they provide systematic collection of data and results are based on the experience of one practitioner, they may also provide strong evidence.

A review of literature is a summary, analysis, and interpretation of the theoretical, conceptual and research literature related to a topic or theme.

Books, monographs, and references books may also provide overviews of research, although these are likely to be several years older than comparable reviews from similarly dated journal articles.

Theoretical articles provide overviews of empirical research, although the studies reviewed are selected based on their relevance to the theory examined.

A secondary source is an article that describes original research conducted by the author of the article.

A primary source is any article written by someone who is describing research done by others. It may also describe empirical research, but it usually gives less information on the research methods and so is usually considered to be a weaker type of source.

The way a review of literature is presented in a journal article or short research proposal doesn’t differ from that found in a dissertation or thesis.