I'm writing a research paper, where I'm supposed to go through a mock qualitative study on an issue in education. One aspect of the paper is a literature review, where I analyze three peer-reviewed studies that will support my own (mock) methodology. So in that literature review, I feel like I should cite the same previous studies that my chosen peer-reviewed articles cite. I think it points to some general context in the matter, where a reader could (if they wanted to) use my paper as a reference point for previous research. My question is: Should I? I'm required to have 3-5 articles in my references. The professor seemed to imply that 3-5 is what she's looking for in the references. Yet if I include references to those previous studies, I may have 10-15 references in my paper. I don't want any superfluous fluff, but I don't want to leave stuff out that I should include.
