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Issue 4 (2007)

Presentation

In this fourth issue of UOC Papers, the main new feature that we are presenting, besides the traditional sections of the journal, is the publication of the "Health interventions on the internet" dossier, a series of works grouped under this title and coordinated by lecturers Eulàlia Hernández and Beni Gómez-Zúñiga that offer a range of reflections and experiences of action in the field of healthcare with the aim of highlighting how the emergence of the Internet in this field has changed the practices of professionals and users of the service. In a first block of articles, Josep Maria Suelves, Mónica Quesada and Antoni Baena, among others, reflect on a number of experiences in the field of the treatment of tobacco addiction online and the new features that these practices contribute to it; in the second block, Manuel Armayones, Noemí Guillamón, Felipe García and Cristina Botella, among others, tackle action experiences of hybrid design in such fields as HIV treatment and clinical psychology; and in the third block that forms the dossier, Pilar Roqué, Jaime Jiménez Pernett, Giovanna Gabriele Muñiz, Laura Fernández, María Pilar Farjas and Joaquín Serrano, among others, present a number of experiences of portals specialising in the healthcare field. To conclude, Modesta Pousada, Lourdes Valiente and Mercè Boixadós give a state of the art and a thoughtful prospective on the evolution of these experiences in an attempt to show an overall look that we feel to be completely necessary. The aim of this new section, a dossier clearly aimed at presenting the state of the art in a specific field, is to explore systematically the transformations that the knowledge society is undergoing and producing, work that we will attempt to maintain in forthcoming summaries.

As regards the rest of the journal, the structure remains unaltered. The main article, which we are offering in the "In-Depth" section, is a thoughtful reflection of Raine Koskimaa, Professor of Digital Culture at the University of Jyväskylä (Finland), on literature and its teaching in the digital era, in the article entitled "The challenge of cybertext: teaching literature in the digital world". The work is presented by UOC lecturer Laura Borràs, whose work "Towards a new conception of literary studies in the European Higher Education Space (EHES)" can also be found in the "Miscellany" section. In the "Analysis and Debate" section, Joan-Elies Adell presents the article "A bibliographic review of relations between literature and technology. The state of the art at Spanish universities", in which he takes a critical look at a series of books published in Spain about the study and analysis of the relationship between literature and technology. Together, these three works offer a fairly complete idea of the challenges and opportunities for focusing the teaching of literature, while at the same time looking at the transformations that have occurred to it due to the impact of digital technologies.

Also, in the issue's miscellaneous sections, we find the work by Maria Callejón "R+D, innovation and public policy: towards a new economic policy for innovation", in which she offers an economic focus on research, development and innovation policies in Spain, taking into account the indicators established by the OECD for measuring their impact and dimensions, and the article by Francesc González, Oriol Miralbell, Marta Gemma Nel·lo and Francesc Romagosa "Greening tourism: a knowledge exchange platform", which analyses the experience of a specialist forum that has been developed in the framework of Tourism studies as a space for the exchange of reflections and new practices, which we will shortly be publishing.

In short, we are presenting an issue that embraces two apparently separate fields, namely healthcare action over the Internet and the teaching of literature in the digital era, and which also brings together other work in the field of the knowledge economy and the exchange of practices in the tourist industry. Consequently, this issue is an example of the unequivocal interdisciplinary vocation of UOC Papers and of the extent of the impact of the Internet on every academic and professional field.

The summary of the journal concludes with the review by Enric Serradell of the book Didáctica universitaria en entornos virtuales de enseñanza-aprendizaje, by G. Bautista, F. Borges and A. Forés, and the "Selection of Books".

Finally, with regard to one of the journal's priorities, indexing in directories and reference databases that should afford it visibility, prestige and impact, we would like to highlight the entry of UOC Papers in E-revistas, a directory of Spanish and Latin American scientific journals promoted by CINDOC-CSIC, and in Intute, which is an evaluated directory of academic education and research resources with the support of six British universities. As can be seen in the "Indexing" section, these new inclusions complete the already significant set of databases and depositories in which our publication appears.

Joan Fuster Sobrepere

Director of UOC Papers

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