This volume is …
This study investigates …
This paper examines …
This collection of papers presents …
This special issue …
The present volume contains …
This paper puts forward …
This paper will show …
The study includes chapters on …
This chapter presents …
a presentation of …
The question to be asked here is …
The question to be examined in this paper is …
In broad outline, …
An obvious starting point is …
… is generally taken as a or the starting point in discussing etc. …
Before embarking on a discussion of …, it is important to …
Structure
The study is divided into two etc. or several parts
The study is divided into four etc. main sections
The first chapter …; the second chapter …; the final chapter …
The first two etc. chapters examine …
Chapter X discusses …
Chapter X addresses a number of issues …
Chapters X–X concentrate on …
Firstly, secondly, thirdly …
Firstly, …, followed by …, and finally …
In part 1, …; in part 2, …; and in part 3 …
The central theme is …
The question to be asked here is …
the subject of inquiry
to examine the research problem in detail
By way of introduction, …
the study will begin by outlining or examining …
it seems appropriate to …
… give a brief overview of the problem
… provide a brief outline of …
… outline the investigation
It will highlight …
The following section sets out …
This section will examine …
… is or are introduced in this section or chapter
The analysis in chapter X …
In X.X it is argued that …
In X.X the importance of … as a factor … is discussed
This is followed by …
Related work
The paper presented here is based in part on an earlier study
An earlier version of this paper was presented at …
… was published in the Journal of …
This paper …
… is a revised version of …
… has been substantially revised
… includes new chapters on …
There are new sections on …
This paper etc. forms part of a larger study of …
This paper etc. has been submitted for publication in …
Parts of this study have been or were presented at the conference on …
Parts of this paper were presented in a lecture on … to … in April 2013 etc.