01 Editorial.qxd Editorial In the introduction to a recently published volume edited by colleagues from the Spanish University of Extremadura, Martin Hewings (2007: xv) claims that “the wide variety of “specific purposes” that teachers are called upon to work with has long been a characteristic of the field of LSP”. Moreover, he seems to find in this particular issue one of the most appealing features of LSP: For many us, this is part of the fascination of the job –i.e., bringing our language teaching skills to different academic disciplines and occupational areas–. It is also important to remember, however, that this is the feature that often discourages “general” language teachers from dipping their toes in the water of LSP. (Hewings, 2007: xv) In Ibérica no. 15, contributing authors do not only “dip their toes in the water” but “submerge themselves” in the (very often uncharted) waters of differing specialisms such as computer science (Shehzad), business (Herrera), psychology (García-Østbye), architecture (Poveda), biological sciences (Peña y Olivares), or aviation (Aiguo). Three more works highlight the significance of discourse in academic settings through the analysis of textographies (Paltridge), email communication (Pérez, Turney & Montero) and reading awareness (Lahuerta). Coincidentally, the research papers presented herein (except for Aiguo’s) share a common interest in written discourse from different perspectives. The “research papers” section opens with Paltridge’s study on how a particular approach to genre analysis, such as a textography, may contribute to the researching and teaching of writing. Paltridge introduces the reader into what a textography is and discusses three particular textography instances: art and design exegeses, college English writing, and student academic writing. His examples and comments will help to raise awareness on the need “to gain an understanding of why texts are written as they are” (abstract) and will provide readers with some guidance on the value of textographies within the research on writing. Next, Shehzad’s paper focuses on the characteristics of the introduction section of Computer Science research articles and, more precisely, on how computer scientists endeavour to “create a niche” for their research. In a IBÉRICA 15 [2008]: 5-8 5 01 EDITORIAL.qxp 14/3/08 17:49 Página 5 third paper, Herrera makes use of a corpus of business press headlines compiled from relevant British and Spanish business papers to analyse, by means of a contrastive approach, the syntactic structure of metaphors together with the foci, the source domains and the vehicle terms used. Following this, the features of e-mail communication in English are studied by Pérez, Turney & Montero who, in particular, explore the formality of greetings and farewells, use of contractions and politeness indicators, and non-standard linguistic features in a corpus of e-mail messages from academic institutions. Another wide array of text features is studied by García-Østbye (this time, Research Article-Comment-Reply abstracts yield the target sample) and conclusions aim at pinpointing similarities and differences with traditional abstracts and with particular reference to dialogical content. Poveda moves to the occupational arena and presents a study of English-Spanish hedging as a strategy to achieve communicative goals in architecture project descriptions. The last paper in this group is about associative anaphora resolution in French discourse. By providing different examples (case studies) Peña & Olivares try to identify the different metonymic associations embodied in reports. The “research notes” section contains two very different contributions. Thanks to the paper by Aiguo readers are led into the characteristics of Aviation English. Even though particular reference is made to the Chinese context, much of the situation depicted can be transferred to the situation in other countries. In the second paper, Lahuerta investigates the different strategies Spanish students use while reading academic materials written in English so as to contribute to increasing metacognitive awareness and helping students become more active and responsive readers. As in issue no. 14, six publications are presented and reviewed. This time reviews will be of interest to readers intrigued by the use of specialised translation as a method of formative evaluation and self-assessment (Fraile’s review on Elorza’s work); the use of ITs in the teaching of listening and reading comprehension to social work students (Fuertes’ review on Fernández & Hewitt’s teaching materials); the analysis of oral and written medical discourse (Fuertes’ review on Gotti & Salager-Meyer’s collection of papers); the state-of-the-art of LSP (Palmer’s review on Alcaraz, Martínez & Yus’ volume); the latest English-Spanish dictionary of business and finance terms and definitions (López’s review on Merino & López’s encyclopaedic dictionary); and, the linguistic problems that specialised texts embody when translated (Orts’ review on Fuertes’ edited volume). ANA BOCANEGRA VALLE IBÉRICA 15 [2008]: 5-86 01 EDITORIAL.qxp 14/3/08 17:49 Página 6 Turning to the current status of the journal, I am glad to announce that, in the span between no. 14 and the publication of this issue, Ibérica has been recognised as a reliable international source in the field of linguistics and related disciplines in the language sciences, and, hence, has been accepted for full coverage by six relevant index lists in the field of linguistics and education. These are, in alphabetic order, the following: Contents Pages in Education, Dialnet, Educational Research Abstracts Online, Linguistics Abstracts Online, Linguistics and Language Behavior Abstracts, and MLA List of Periodicals. In relation to current indexing, please note that SPPELL (Spanish Periodical Publications in English Language and Linguistics) is no longer available and, therefore, has been removed from the initial list. Finally, my most sincere appreciation to Ibérica’s editorial board for the work done and, particularly, to the external reviewers who have shared their knowledge and expertise with us in this period reviewing some of the papers submitted: Mª Teresa Alejos Juez (Universidad Rey Juan Carlos de Madrid), Mª Enriqueta Cortés de los Ríos (Universidad de Almería), Victoria Guillén Nieto (Universidad de Alicante), Mª Ángeles Orts (Universidad de Murcia), and Ana Rojo López (Universidad de Murcia). A particular word of gratitude is due to Nuria Edo from the journal administration office at Universitat Jaume I, for her kind assistance and wholehearted support throughout the edition and distribution process of each issue. Ana Bocanegra Valle Editor of Ibérica Universidad de Cádiz (Spain) ana.bocanegra@uca.es REFERENCES EDITORIAL IBÉRICA 15 [2008]: 5-8 7 Hewings, M. (2007). “Introduc- tion” in A. Curado Fuentes, P. Edwards Rokowski & M. Rico García (eds.), Approaches to Specialised Discourse in Higher Education and Professional Contexts, xiv-xviii. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. 01 EDITORIAL.qxp 14/3/08 17:49 Página 7 01 EDITORIAL.qxp 14/3/08 17:49 Página 8