Abstract  Oviposition by herbivorous insects can stimulate plants to produce a certain degree of resistance. Compared to research on resistance to insect feeding, research on oviposition resistance is still in its infancy in China and most results are from overseas. To promote domestic research in this field, this paper reviews various aspects of oviposition-induced plant resistance, including the elicitor, structural defense, chemical defense, defensive gene expression and indirect defense. The future direction of research on oviposition-induced resistance is also discussed. Identifying and understanding the elicitor mechanism should be the first step in research in this area. Structural defense occurs mainly through changes in the plant cell wall structure, growth of the oviposition site, tissue necrosis and hypersensitivity. Chemical defenses includes the production of volatiles that deter further egg deposition on a chosen plant or neighboring plants. It also includes changes in nutrients and secondary metabolites in the leaves of affected plants that increase larval mortality. At the molecular level, oviposition can induce the synthesis of defensive proteins and the up-regulation of genes associated with resistance. Studies of related pathways mainly focus on the transduction pathways of signal molecules, such as JA, SA and ethylene. Ecological or indirect defense is mainly induced by transmitting information via the release of volatiles between plants, thereby promoting a tertiary trophic relationship that protects plants in the same location. There has been a relatively large amount of research conducted on the release of volatile compounds by plants to attract natural enemies, such as predators and parasitic wasps for indirect defense. Currently, research on oviposition induced resistance is still mainly theoretical, and there are few products or techniques available for the control of agriculture or forestry pests. Induced plant resistance is, however, likely to be an important way of controlling pests in the future, and further research on plant defensive mechanisms is, therefore, essential to provide a theoretical basis for this.