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.