Pet Peeve: “the literature”

One precious tic of academic writing I implore you to avoid is “…in the literature”.

“Novel contribution to the literature…”

“Unknown in the literature…”

“Fill a gap in the literature…”

You know what I mean.

The impression you create is that this is some silly self-referential game with only internal measures of importance.

Whether this is how you see science or not…..avoid creating this impression.

Talk about knowledge or understanding instead.