the literature

"In the literature" is a phrase used by researchers and other scholars to describe things that are discussed in Journals and other periodicals relevant to their field of study.

Useage:

"I'm thinking of doing an experiment on lamarckian learning in flatworms."
"Have you seen if there's anything on it in the literature yet?"

That's not a bug, that's a feature! = T = the network

the literature n.

Computer-science journals and other publications, vaguely gestured at to answer a question that the speaker believes is trivial. Thus, one might answer an annoying question by saying "It's in the literature." Oppose Knuth, which has no connotation of triviality.

--Jargon File, autonoded by rescdsk