About the Journal

Lingüística en la Red, an annual publication, was created with the intention of fulfilling several aims. First, to promote, maintain and consolidate a linguistics journal that would show the development of both theoretical and applied facets of the subject area. In this respect, we are fully aware that, on occasions, the topics pertaining  specifically to one or the other may hamper a global vision of this science and that sometimes it is difficult even to identify the very existence of applied linguistics as an independent field of study. However, these epistemiological problems do not impede the publication of a journal in which there will be a place for articles dealing with the present state of the question with regard to some topics of theoretical linguistics, discussing a specific point of linguistic theory or explaining an issue, in relation to one or more languages, from the theoretical approach held by any of the linguistic methodologies in use today, be they formal or functional. Likewise, Lingüística en la Red will include articles which present the results of research concerning the practical application of theoretical knowledge, either from a general perspective or from the perspective of the analysis of a specific language.

 

These contributions will be included in the “Articles” section of the journal. On the other hand, the “Reviews” section aims to deal with all linguistics books that fulfill the above-mentioned criteria, bearing in mind that the review may be simply informative or  combine information with criticism.

 

The second aspiration of the journal is to become, in time, one of the forums for discussion in the field of general linguistics. Since its creation, those working and studying in this area of knowledge have had occasion to come together and discuss questions that are pertinent to the field, the speciality, and the cultivation of the science related to this area. In consequence, several meetings have been held sporadically, at different universities. Furthermore, since 1994, the series of General Linguistics Conferences (in Valencia (1994), Granada (1996), Salamanca (1998), Cadiz (2000), Leon (2002), -and the upcoming one in Santiago de Compostela (2004)- have permitted the presentation of a full range of articles and research by specialists in this field. Along with this, the panels held at some of these conferences, and the subsequent publication of their content, provide up-to-date knowledge of who we are and what we do. To these we can now add Lingüística en la Red, a new forum that contributes to two areas: those of publications and information. The journal contains a section dedicated to the latter. In it we intend to include information about linguistic research projects and specific studies, such as occasional reports on activities in the field or on its teachers. In the latter case, these are limited to accounts of congresses, courses, lectures given by overseas speakers, the introduction of Ph. D courses with the participation of linguistics teachers, or changes in syllabi concerning subjects in the field of linguistics.

 

 

All this does not mean that the journal publishes only works written by teachers and scholars of general linguistics. On the contrary, its doors (or rather, its site) are open to specialists in any language who approach an aspect of the language that they study from a strictly linguistic perspective.

 

The final intention behind the journal is to facilitate the publication of manuscripts, for which reason an electronic format has been preferred to paper, as well as offering the possibility of free access, pdf. downloads and printing the published works. The reason is clear to see. Some members of the General Linguistics department at the University of Alcalá have noticed that the articles that we send to journals or periodicals sometimes take years to be published, despite having been accepted from the beginning. And, although the nature of our research does not require its immediate dissemination in the scientific community, it is nonetheless true that having to wait years for the publication of an article diminishes its value in the eyes of the author and, when working on subjects of widespread interest, runs the risk that the perspective of a subject, or the statement and solution of a problem may already have been dealt with by another researcher. Likewise, the results of research carried out using empirical data, as is the case in sociolinguistics, are subject to the  modifications and revisions brought about by new studies, and this requires a knowledge of the time sequence of all the research. Besides, reviews, which usually deal with recent published works, become irrelevant if their publication is delayed, and the delayed dissemination of these projects (we are sometimes aware of them only when their completion time has expired) impedes contact between those carrying out the research and others who are working on similar or related topics. To counteract this situation, we considered that it would be a good idea to publish a digital journal which would take shape as articles were received and accepted for publication. In this way, it would not be necessary to wait for an issue to be “closed” before posting it online. The acceptance of an article would automatically mean its immediate inclusion in the journal.

 

Only time will tell us how the journal will be received, the quality it may attain and its possible continuity. And now, only two points remain to be dealt with: first, we would like to thank the teachers on the Scientific Committee for agreeing to collaborate, and for the ideas subsequently contributed by some of them (I have tried to include them in the foregoing text).  The second is to encourage linguistics scholars to send us the material that we need to give this page the desired content.

Inmaculada Penadés Martínez

Alcalá de Henares, marzo de 2003